Table 1.
Executive functioning in adolescents with depressive disorders
| Study nr | Paper | Status | Mean age (SD) |
Sample size | Diagnostic criteria | Psychiatric co-occurrences | Psychotropic medications | EF domain | Instrument | Results | Statistic |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Baller (2021) | MDD (lifetime) | MDD:16.87 (2.20) | 712 |
Interview GOASSESS; DSM-IV-TR |
MDD: NR HC: No |
MDD: 30% of the sample HC: 13% (Controlled for) |
SHIFT | PCET (CNB) |
MDD Subtype 2 < HC (accuracy & speed) MDD Subtype 1 > Subtype 2 |
d = .50 d = .76 |
| HC:16.49 (2.84) | 712 | WM | Letter N-Back (CNB) |
MDD Subtype 2 < HC (accuracy & speed) MDD Subtype 1 > Subtype 2 |
d = .50 d = .54 |
||||||
| 2 | Chen (2023) | MDD (current) | MDD:17.07 (0.80) | 29 |
Interview MDD: DSM-5; GCI-S ≤ 3 HC: MINI-Kid |
NR | Yes: % NR | SHIFT | WCST | NS | N/A |
| HC:17 (1.20) | 22 | WM | N-Back | MDD < HC (mean time) | p = .016 | ||||||
| 3 | Dell’Acqua (2023;a) | MDD (current & lifetime) | MDD: 13.6 (1.09) | 29 |
Interview K-SADS-PL; DSM-IV |
MDD: OCD (10%), AD (> 50%) | NR | INH | Flanker Task | MDD < HC (speed) | p = .020 |
| HC: 16.2 (2.91) | 34 | HC: No | |||||||||
| 4 | Diler (2014) | MDD (current) | MDD: 15.9 (1.10) | 10 |
Interview K-SADS-PL; DSM-IV-TR) |
MDD: AD (60%), ADHD (20%) | MDD: 60% | INH | Go/NoGo | NS (reaction times for NoGo responses) | p = .56 |
| HC:15.6 (1.2) | 10 | HC: NR | HC: None | ||||||||
| 5 | Fisk (2019) | Elevated depressive symptoms (current) | Elevated: 14.84 (1.36) | 29 |
Other MFQ ≥ 27 |
NR | NR | INH | The HSC |
NS (number of errors) NS (reaction time) |
p = . 51 p = .06 |
| HC: 14.65 (1.52) | 29 | WM | The KTT | DEP < HC | p = .001 | ||||||
| 6 | Gillespie and Rao (2022) | MDD | MDD: 16.28 (1.40) | 63 |
Interview K-SADS-COMP V2.0; DSM-IV |
NR | No | GEC | BRIEF-SR | MDD < HC | p < .01 |
| HC: 15.60 (1.45) | 75 | INH | CWIT (D-KEFS) | NS | N/A | ||||||
| 7 | Hanna (2018) |
MDD (current & lifetime) |
MDD: 16.8 (1.4) | 36 |
Interview K-SADS; DSM-5 |
MDD: Yes (% NR) HC: No |
MDD: 30% HC: None |
INH | Flanker Task | NS | N/A |
| HC: 16.2 (1.8) | 89 | ||||||||||
| 8 | Liang (2021) |
MDD (Current & lifetime) |
MDD: 17.9 (2.7) | 50 |
Interview ICD-10 |
Yes (% NR) | MDD: Yes (% NR) | WM | MCCB—WMS-III SST | NS | p = .576 |
| HC:17.7 (3.2) | 51 | HC: NR | |||||||||
| 9 | Onat (2019) | MDD (Current & lifetime) | MDD-SA: 15.85 (1.02) | 32 |
Interview K-SADS-PL; DSM-IV |
No | MDD: Yes (% NR) | SHIFT | WCST | NS | N/A |
| MDD w/o SA: 15.9 (1.23) | 30 | HC: None | INH | Stroop | Part 1: MDD-SA > HC (time) | p = .029 | |||||
| HC: 15.99 (1.37) | 30 | Part 3: MDD w/o SA > HC, MDD w/o SA > MDD-SA (correction) | p = .17 | ||||||||
| Part 4: MDD-SA > HC (time) | p = .015 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Pan (2020) | MDD (Current; First-episode) | MDD: 16 | 28 |
Interview SCID; DSM-IV |
No | No | INH | SCWT |
Part B: MDD < HC Part C: MDD < HC |
p < .05 p < .05 |
| HC: 16 | 24 | SHIFT | WCST; TMT-B | NS+ (perseverative errors) | p = .219 | ||||||
| 11 | Peters (2019) | Mixed DD | MDD-CT: 14.45 (1.54) | 22 |
Interview K-SADS-PL; DSM-IV |
MDD-CT: AD (> 50%), PTSD (18.2%), ADHD (22.7%) MDD w/o CT: AD (> 50%), PTSD (5.6%), ADHD (5.6%) |
MDD-CT: No MDD w/o CT: 11% |
Parent-rated INH | BRIEF-PR |
MDD-CT < HC MDD < HC |
d = .62; p < .05 d = .64 |
| MDD: 14.61 (1.46) | 18 | HC: No | HC: No | INH | Go/NoGo | MDD-CT < HC (accuracy) | d = .54; p < .05 | ||||
| HC:14.67 (1.37) | 30 | ||||||||||
| 12 | Shebab (2016) | MDD (current) | MDD: 14.83 (1.63) | 24 | Interview DAWBA; DSM-IV & ICD-10; CDR-RS ≥ 40 | MDD: AD (50%), ADHD (8.3%) | MDD: 8.3% | INH | RVP B’’ (CANTAB) | MDD < HC | p < .05 |
| HC: 14.25 (1.59) | 24 | HC: No | HC: No | ||||||||
| 13 | Zhang (2022) | MDD (current) | MDD-NSSI:16.13 (1.95) | 40 |
Interview DSM-5 |
NR | No | SHIFT | TMT-B |
MDD-NSSI < HC MDD < HC MDD < HC |
p < .01 p < .01 p < .05 |
| MDD: 16.67 (1.9) | 46 | WCST |
MDD-NSSI < HC MDD < HC |
p < .01 p < .01 |
|||||||
| HC: 17.07 (3.1) | 28 |
SD Standard deviation, NR Not reported, + after correcting for multiple comparisons, GCI-S Clinical Global Impression-Severity scale, MFQ The Mood and Feelings Questionnaire, MDD Major Depressive Disorder, MDD-SA MDD with suicide attempt, MDD-CT MDD with childhood trauma, MDD-NSSI MDD with non-suicidal self-injury, HCs Healthy controls, WM Working memory
PCET Penn Conditional Exclusion Test, FT Flanker Task, MCCB The MATRICS Consensus Cognitive Battery, HSC The Hayling Sentence Completion task, KTT The Keep Track Task, RPV Rapid Visual Processing, GEC Global Executive Composite score, DST Digit Symbol Test, SCWT Stroop Color and Word Test