Does long-term memory deficit relate to patients' slowness in schizophrenia?

The performance of fast and slow schizophrenic patients and matched controls was examined in a delayed free recall task to assess whether the patient's slowness would influence long-term memory (LTM) in a similar way to working memory.

Twenty-three schizophrenic patients who met DSM-IV criteria and were matched in age and educational level to 23 controls participated. Subjects' reading rate was measured, and a cut-off of mean controls' reading rate minus 2 standard deviations was allowed the identification of 9 slow patients. The memory task comprised a list of 20 unrelated common words presented visually that were to be recalled in any order after a delay of 25-30 minutes filled with unrelated tasks.

The overall patients' performance was poor compared with controls, and slow and fast performance was comparable, contrasting with immediate memory tasks in which slow patients were impaired compared with fast patients.

Patients' slowness does not seem to influence the long-term memory deficit in schizophrenia.