Influence of comorbid anxiety symptoms on cognitive deficits in patients with major depressive disorder

•No significant difference were seen in cognitive performance between depression patients with and without comorbid anxiety.•Psychic anxiety may contribute to extensive cognitive deficits in MDDA patients.•The severity of depression explained a larger proportion of variance in cognitive performance than anxiety symptoms.•Anxiety symptoms only independently triggered executive dysfunction when eliminating effect of the severity of depression. Major depressive disorder (MDD) patients with comorbid anxiety symptoms showed obvious cognitive deficits. However, it remains unclear whether comorbid anxiety symptoms will make a specific contribution to cognitive deficits in MDD. Executive function, processing speed, attention and memory were assessed in 162 MDD patients, and 142 healthy controls (HCs) by a comprehensive neuropsychological battery. 14-item Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) was used for anxiety symptoms and MDD patients with HAM-A total score >14 were classified into MDD with comorbid anxiety (MDDA) group. A multivariate analysis of covariance and regression models was conducted to evaluate the effects of anxiety symptoms on cognitive deficits. There were no significantly differences in all 4 cognitive domains between MDD alone and MDDA patients (all p