MEMORY PERFORMANCE, SELF-REPORTED MEMORY LOSS AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMSIN ATTENDERS AT A GP-REFERRAL AND A SELF-REFERRAL MEMORY CLINIC

Reports of declining memory are common with increasing age. Sometimes these are corroborated by poor memory test performance, but often they appear to be more closely related to depressive symptomatology. As ph armacological treatments emerge for improving cognition in the elderly , understanding the aetiology of memory complaints will become increas ingly important. This article compares memory performance, reports of memory loss and depressive symptoms in attenders at a GP-referral and a self-referral memory clinic, with age- and sex-matched community con trols. The GP-referred patients were older, had lower MMSE scores and had levels of memory complaint and depression between the control and self-referred subjects. The self-referrers had cognitive test performa nce similar to community controls but complained more of memory loss, were more depressed and more frequently reported a past history of tre ated depression. Self-presentation of memory complaint appears to be m ore closely related to affective and possibly personality factors than memory test performance.