Photo Credit: Bulat Silvia
The following is a summary of “Objective cognitive functioning in patients with stress-related disorders: a cross-sectional study using remote digital cognitive testing,” published in the August 2024 of Psychiatry by Föyen et al.
Cognitive impairments have been primarily reported in patients with stress-related mental disorders.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study for assessing the adjustment disorder or exhaustion disorder in patients with stress-related mental disorders—subgroup analysis of cognitive differences between the diagnostic groups and exploring correlations between self-reported symptoms and cognitive performance.
They compared cognitive test results from 266 patients (adjustment disorder, n=131, exhaustion disorder, n=135) with those from a healthy normative group (n=184 to 692). This comparison was made using one-tailed t-tests, with subgroup analyses conducted using ANOVAs and regression analyses used to explore associations between self-reported symptoms and cognitive functioning.
The results showed that the performance of the normative group was worse in all measures, with minor to moderate effect sizes ranging from d=-.13 to -.57. Patients with exhaustion disorder showed more impairments than those with adjustment disorder. However, no significant differences were found between the diagnostic groups, and no similar links were found between self-reported burnout symptoms and objective cognitive functioning.
They concluded that this study contributed to highlighting minor to moderate objective cognitive impairments in patients with stress-related mental disorders.
Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-023-05048-5#Abs1
