The specifity of cognitive performance of depressive children and adolescents in WISC-III results

Distinctive performance features are central symptoms of depressive children and adolescents. So far a specific and conclusive mapping of such deficiencies in WISC-III results could not be described. Objective: Do depressed children show specific deficits in cognitive performances? Method: The performance of 33 monopolar depressive children and adolescents without comorbidity (9-16 years, 22 f) is compared to an ADHD control group (n = 33; 7-15 years, 10 f) regarding specific discrepancies from the norm. Results: The depressive sample does not show the expected deficits, neither in comparison to the norm, nor to the control group. Only regarding information (t(33) = -2.43, p = .021; d = -0.41) and arithmetic (t(33) = -1.51, p = .141; d = -0.25), minor deficits could be detected. Conclusions: These are interpreted as caused by failure anticipation and inhibited behavior. The significance of psychometric performance assessment within clinical diagnosis of depression is discussed.