Depression Symptoms and Neuropsychological Function in Children with Learning Difficulties

Objective. The objective of this study was to identify correlations between depression symptoms and cortical functions in children with learning difficulties. Method. A sample of 33 students participated in the study, 25 males and 8 females, with average age of 10.7 years old, recruted from outpatients clinics of Neurology, specialized in learning problems with multidisciplinary evaluation. The participants were evaluated with the following instruments: the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) and Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). For data analysis, the Statistical Package for Social Sciences was used for descriptive and inferential statistics. Results. Three students presented depression symptoms. Negative correlations (the more depressive were the children the less scored in WISC) were found between CDI and the WISC verbal subtests: Similarities, Vocabulary, and Comprehension; between the CDI and the WISC Verbal Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Total IQ, and Verbal Comprehension Index; between the CDI and the WISC test of sustained visual attention: Symbol Search and Speed of Processing Index. Conclusions. We observed that the depression symptoms interfered negatively in verbal functions and sustained visual attention. The study demonstrates that it is important to investigate depressive symptoms in children, mainly in those who present learning difficulties.