Whole Body Choice Reaction Time (WBCRT-C1) to Detect Cognitive Impairment in Patients with Depressive Disorder (DD): A Case-Control Study

Background: Depressive disorder (DD) is a state of multiple neuro- psychological deficits, and cognitive testing has proven to be beneficial in guiding the treatment of depression. Since these neuro-cognitive testings require a great deal of time and skill, measuring Reaction time (RT) can prove an alternative method of measuring cognition. RT is a sensitive tool to measure attention and execution. In our study, whole-body choice reaction time (WBCRT) is divided into 2 chronoscopic readings, WBCRT-C1 and WBCRT-C2. WBCRT-C1 measures the time required for central processing in the central nervous system, which includes cognition, and WBCRT-C2 measures total RT, which includes central processing and peripheral processing. Objective: The objective of the study was to measure and compare WBCRT-C1 in DD and controls and assess the correlation between WBCRT-C1 with MMSE and HAM-A scores. Methods: Hospital-based case-control study was conducted on a total of 68 young subjects, including 34 subjects of DD aged between 18-45 yrs, and their reaction times were compared with a similar number of age- and sex-matched controls. Results: WBCRT-C1 was more delayed in patients of DD (807±245 ms) than in controls (579±99ms). A significant correlation was found between WBCRT-C1 and MMSE (r=-0.7371, p=0.0001), and HAM-A scores (r=0.3395 p=0.0046). Conclusion: WBCRT-C1 could be a quantitative tool to assess cognitive dysfunction in DD.