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. 2019 Jan;27(1):12-17.
doi: 10.1016/j.jagp.2018.08.009. Epub 2018 Aug 25.

Neurocognitive Correlates of Resilience in Late-Life Depression

Kelsey T Laird  1 , Helen Lavretsky  2 , Pauline Wu  1 , Beatrix Krause  1 , Prabha Siddarth  1
Affiliations

Neurocognitive Correlates of Resilience in Late-Life Depression

Kelsey T Laird et al. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2019 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: Increasing understanding of the neurocognitive correlates of resilience in late-life depression (LLD) could inform interventions to promote more sustained remission. We investigated cross-sectional relations between baseline resilience and domains of neurocognitive functioning in depressed older adults enrolled in one of four trials.

Methods: Participants (N = 288) completed neurocognitive tests of memory, language performance, and executive functioning as well as measures of subjective memory performance and components of resilience (grit, active coping self-efficacy, accommodative coping self-efficacy, and spirituality).

Results: Medium-sized associations were observed between greater resilience (overall resilience, accommodative coping) and lower frequency of self-reported forgetting. Small positive associations were observed between language performance and total resilience, active coping self-efficacy, and accommodative coping self-efficacy. Small negative associations were observed between spirituality and each objective measure of cognitive performance.

Conclusion: Future longitudinal studies will help elucidate the complex relation between resilience and cognitive functioning in LLD. In addition, randomized controlled trials targeting coping self-efficacy may inform the development of more effective and personalized interventions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of interest: Dr. Lavretsky received research support from Allergan/ Forest Laboratories. The remaining authors have no disclosures to report.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Scatterplots depicting the association between language performance and two resilience factors: accommodative coping self-efficacy (r=0.18, p=0.002; 1A) and spirituality (r=−0.14, p=0.02; 1B).
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