Background: Treatment of pituitary pathology mostly does not result in complete recovery of impairment in cognitive functioning. The primary aim of the current study was to objectify the spectrum of persisting cognitive impairments in patients with hypopituitarism, at least six months after normalizing hormonal disturbances. It was expected that patients showed subjective and objective subnormal scores on neuropsychological functioning.

Methods: 42 patients (40% men, 49 ± 15 yr) treated for hypopituitarism conducted a neuropsychological test battery, including the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ), 15-Words test (15-WT), Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) Motor Screening Task (MOT), Spatial Working Memory (SWM) and Affective Go/No-go (AGN). Results were compared to reference values of healthy norm groups.

Results: Participants scored significantly worse on the CFQ (p < .01), AGN mean correct latency (p < .01), AGN errors of commission (p = .02) and omission (p = .04). Female participants scored significantly worse on 15-WT direct recall (p = .01), 15-WT delayed recall (p = .01), SWM total errors (p = .05) and SWM strategy (p = .04).

Conclusion: This study shows that subjective cognitive functioning is worse in patients treated for hypopituitarism compared to reference data. Also, female participants treated for hypopituitarism score worse on objective aspects of memory and executive functioning compared to reference data. This objective cognitive impairment was not found in male participants. It is recommended to conduct additional research, which focuses on the design and evaluation of a cognitive remediation therapy, aimed at compensation of impairments in different aspects of memory and executive functioning.