Memory and dating of past events in schizophrenia

Memory deficits are frequently observed in schizophrenia but their intrinsic characteristics have not been clarified. We studied remote memory in a group of 20 schizophrenics and 20 healthy age and education matched controls using a newly devised public event questionnaire (PEQ) that employs a free recall, progressive cueing and recognition protocol and requires dating of events. Results indicate that patients with chronic schizophrenia perform significantly more poorly on the PEQ than a group of age and education matched controls both in terms of content and dating of events. The number of events recalled does not improve with progressive cuing or recognition. No distinctive pattern was observed in their temporal gradient. There was no significant difference in content scores for pre- and post-onset events in the schizophrenics. These findings indicate that remote memory deficits in chronic schizophrenics arise from deficient encoding rather than from a retrieval deficit secondary to executive dysfunction.