[Depression and memory: comparison of memory performances in depressive and healthy adults]

This study examines whether patients suffering from a major depression episode or recurrent depression reveal impairments in different memory components compared to healthy controls. Memory functions are examined and compared by assessing the examinees' performances on free recall and recognition tasks.

Performances of 200 depressed inpatients and outpatients as well as 200 healthy controls on memory tasks were assessed using a psychometric test battery. Data was evaluated by analyzing the differences of mean values and the heterogeneity of relevant effect sizes.

Depressed patients showed lower performances on all episodic memory tasks compared to healthy controls. The size of deficits turned out to vary depending on the type of affective disorder and the type of memory task.