According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 332 million people experience major depressive disorder worldwide. However, diagnosing depression comes with its challenges. While self-report questionnaires are essential, they rely on subjective information when it comes to measuring the diminished ability to think or concentrate that many people with depression experience.
Compared to questionnaires alone, digital cognitive assessments provide a fast, scalable way to measure cognitive symptoms for effective depression screening. By combining subjective input about the core symptoms of depression with objective data about cognition, these assessments can improve screening efficiency, produce reliable data, and enable long-term symptom tracking.
Major depressive disorder (MDD), often called depression, is a common but serious mental health disorder marked by persistent feelings of sadness, loss of interest, and a range of physical and cognitive symptoms.
Unlike certain intermittent feelings of sadness or grief, which are natural responses to particular life events, symptoms of clinical depression persist for weeks or months and significantly disrupt daily functioning. About 8.3% of U.S. adults have experienced at least one major depressive episode, but these must be recurring to be considered clinical depression.
While severe depression symptoms are debilitating and associated with crisis, mild or moderate depression can go unidentified without screening. However, when left undiagnosed or untreated, depression is associated with lower quality of life, increased risk of comorbid mental health disorders, and worsened physical symptoms of underlying health conditions like diabetes or hypertension.
It’s important to identify symptoms of mental health conditions like depression early and accurately in order to guide appropriate care and improve patient outcomes.
Clinical depression has common symptoms that affect mood, cognition, and physical health, like:
Depression can have a significant impact on cognition, specifically on the ability to focus. More specific impairments, like response inhibition and attention, can be measured using assessments like the Stroop test or using digital cognitive assessments like those from Creyos.
Patients with major depressive disorder may have difficulty concentrating, making decisions, or remembering details. These cognitive symptoms are characteristic of depression and can cause challenges in professional and personal settings.
Depression is a complex disorder with multiple contributing factors, like biological factors, genetics, and environment. The more risk factors a person has, the more likely they are to develop a depressive disorder at some point in their life.
If an individual has a genetic predisposition to depression, certain lifestyle factors such as sleep, exercise, and social relationships can impact the likelihood of developing a depressive disorder and protect against depression.
Several biological, psychological, and social risk factors may relate to developing or triggering depression:
Incorporating patient-centered care during mental health screenings can help uncover the social and environmental factors contributing to patients’ symptoms. By taking time to understand each patient’s story and emotional well-being, providers can get a deeper look at what’s really going on.
Diagnosing depression often begins with a screening questionnaire and physical exam. If symptoms are flagged, patients may be referred for a clinical interview, a more comprehensive psychological assessment, or lab tests to rule out underlying medical conditions.
In one study about depression in the United States, 31.45% of respondents without a formal diagnosis had scores indicating moderate to severe depression on the PHQ-9, highlighting the need for accessible and sensitive diagnostic aids.
Screening for cognitive symptoms of depression—like slowed thinking, memory issues, or difficulty concentrating—is one way to improve the depression screening process. With digital cognitive assessments, providers can detect subtle cognitive changes that traditional assessments might miss, and speed up the path to treatment.
In mental health care, depression screening often relies on subjective self-reports. While tools like interviews and questionnaires gather valuable insight into patients’ experiences of the mood-related symptoms, they can miss nuances in the cognitive effects of major depressive disorder—particularly when patients underreport or struggle to articulate their symptoms.
That’s where digital cognitive testing comes in.
Depression affects cognition in measurable ways, like impaired reasoning abilities, reduced response inhibition, and memory issues. With cognitive tasks from Creyos, providers can gather real-time data from scientifically validated tasks that objectively measure distinct domains of cognitive function and brain health.
Combining self-report questionnaires and cognitive tests can help:
Clear, quantified data can make it easier to confidently diagnose major depressive disorder. One study found that nearly 40% of people with major psychiatric disorders were misdiagnosed, with major depressive disorder the second most common misdiagnosis.
By making mental health screenings more precise and accessible, people who experience major depressive disorder can get the help they need for better patient health outcomes.
When GT Healthcare was encountering the limits of subjective self-report screeners for mental health disorders, they began using objective cognitive assessments from Creyos.
This streamlined their process and let clinicians confidently make decisions and begin treatment within just 2–3 visits. As a telehealth service, GT was also able to deliver depression assessments remotely to patients in under ten minutes.
Additionally, EMR integration helped the admin team save up to 1.5 hours daily on session notes, fighting back against administrative burden. And with patient data in one platform, referrals between primary care and mental health specialists were additionally simplified.
Despite the fact that depression is the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, it still remains underdiagnosed. Traditional psychological screeners rely heavily on self-reporting, providing essential information about how patients are subjectively feeling, but don't gather objective performance data that can enable more comprehensive and precise depression diagnosis. Digital cognitive tests add that key data to the diagnostic process, allowing clinicians to deliver faster, more effective care for those who need it most.
Sydni earned her MSc in Neurosciences at Western University under Dr. Adrian Owen. Her research explores neuropsychological outcomes after cardiac surgery, with interests in cognitive neuroscience, critical care, and brain health. At Creyos, she supports scientific validity, health technology, and ongoing research.