Memory in schizophrenia and affective disorders

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the stability of memory and information processing in schizophrenics and affectively disturbed patients. Twenty-two schizophrenics, eight affectives and 14 normal controls were tested twice, with an interval of approximately one year. Results showed that normals performed better than schizophrenics and affectively disturbed patients on almost all of the cognitive measures. The differences reached a level of significance on a reaction time test, a vigilance task and a long-term memory task. The only measure where the difference did not reach a level of significance was on a short-term memory test. Groups' performance to some extent changed over time on most of the measures, but the changes were not significantly different for different groups.