Zur klinischen Bedeutung reduzierter Exekutivfunktionen bei älteren Patient:innen mit psychischen Erkrankungen

Research question: Executive functions (EF) show increasing deficits in old age. There are also numerous studies demonstrating the importance of EF in relation to depression, anxiety dis-orders and post-traumatic stress disorder in older patients. Methods: The study presented examined this question in a sample of patients in a psychoso-matic clinic who were in middle (< 60years) and older age (≥ 60years) (N = 150) and compa-red them with a psychologically non-stressed comparison sample (N = 157). The survey in-strument used to assess EF was the Trail-Making Test (TMT). Results: The results show age and setting differences, i. e. older as well as mentally ill subjects showed worse results; an interaction effect was also found. Associations of symptoms and EF were found only in the elderly sample, but not in the middle-aged sample. Conclusions: The results show that the importance of impaired executive functions is a clinically relevant variable in psychotherapy of the elderly.