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The aim of this study was to establish normative data for the Brazilian elderly population in the Logical Memory (LM) subtest of the Wechsler Memory Scale, revised version (WMS-R) and investigate the ability of scores in this subtest (immediate and delayed recall) to discriminate the elderly with and without depressive symptoms. The sample consisted of 334 elderly participants. Participants answered a sociodemographic and health questionnaire, the MMSE, the GDS-15, and the LM subtest. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Student's t test, multiple linear regression, univariate analysis, and discriminant analysis. Age, education, and depressive symptoms significantly influenced all the scores of LM. Normative data were available according to three age groups, three levels of education, sex, and presence or absence of depressive symptoms. Results are in agreement with the literature, demonstrating the importance of establishing reference standards in accordance with sociodemographic and cultural characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is natural that the elderly would present difficulties in executive functions even in the early stages of a depressive condition, which may be detected by the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). This study aimed to compare the performance of elderly people with and without depressive symptoms on the shortened version of the WCST, containing 64 cards (WCST-64). The sample consisted of 153 elderly subjects who were divided into two groups: with and without depressive symptoms. The groups were matched in terms of age, educational level and score on the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE). A Socio-Demographic Data Sheet, the Geriatric Depression Scale, MMSE and the WCST-64 were used. It was observed that, to the extent that depressive symptoms intensified, total errors, perseverative responses and perseverative errors increased on the WCST-64. The results showed that elderly people who present depressive symptoms had poorer performance on the WCST-64, compared to those without depressive symptoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]