The interest of psychiatrists in using neuropsychological tests with patients suffering from depressive disorders has recently increased. The reason is that it has been proved for a fact that similarly to neurological or schizophrenic disorders and mood disorders are associated with a certain type of cognitive defi ciency. By cognitive defi ciency we mean above all impaired memory capacity, reduced attention, and defi cient performance functions. Cognitive defi ciency is sometimes understood as including some other cognitive function components such as motor and language skills or visual perception as well. Depression is characterised by impaired episodic memory and reduced ability to learn new skills. Impaired verbal fl uency, inability to turn attention to new stimuli, slowed-down psychomotor rate and reduced working-memory capacity are the most frequently mentioned partial cognitive function defi ciencies in depression. In the future, attention needs to be paid to improving identifi cation and quantifi cation of cognitive defi ciency in patients suffering from depression, assessing to which extent it affects patients’ daily lives. Establishing whether and to which extent individual partial parameters of cognitive functions correspond to the potential therapeutic response would be valuable, too.

        Key words: cognitive defi cit, depression, executive functions, memory.