Discrimination of the cognitive profiles of MCI and depression using the KBNA.

OBJECTIVE The current study sought to determine if the Kaplan-Baycrest Neurocognitive Assessment (KBNA) was capable of discriminating individuals with subjective memory complaints associated with depression from individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS Scores on 12 subtests of the KBNA were compared for 27 participants with MCI and 28 participants being treated for depression using Bonferroni correct between-group comparisons for each subtest. KBNA subtest scores were corrected for age and education. RESULTS Significant between-group differences were obtained on six subtests with large effect sizes (Cohen's d) ranging from 1.19 - 1.58. The six subtests involved encoding and delayed episodic memory for verbal and visual information. Using logistic regression analysis, five subtests of the KBNA were able to correctly classify 96.4% of study participants. CONCLUSION The results from this preliminary investigation indicate that the KBNA has the potential to serve as a brief and reliable assessment tool capable of distinguishing individuals with subjective memory complaints associated with depression from individuals with MCI in a clinical setting. Limitations of the current study and future research are discussed.