Abstract

The purpose of the present study was 1) to evaluate the neuropsychological function of mild Alzheimer`s disease (mild AD) group and major depressive disorder(DEP) group compared with normal control(NC) group and 2) to investigate the accuracy of neuropsychological tests in differentiation of each group. The neuropsychological tests were administered to 3 groups(mild AD; 14, DEP: 14, NC: 14), all matched for age, sex, education level. Mild AD group performed significantly worse than NC in most indices of Korean Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (K-HVLT), Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test(Rey CFT), Korean version-Boston Naming Test(K-BNT) and Word Fluency Test. They showed more deficits in K-HVLT, K-BNT and Rey CFT false positive errors than DEP group. DEP group performed worse than NC in most testing variables but not significant except for Rey CFT immediate recall score. Discriminant analysis indicated that overall percentage correct classification was 85.71%. K-BNT, K-HVLT(trial 1, 2) and Rey CFT copy scores were highly correlated with Function 1 which discriminate mild AD group from other groups. Rey CFT immediate recall, K-HVLT delayed recall and Digit Span Test scores were effective discriminants for the DEP group.