MEMORY FUNCTIONING IN CHRONIC AND NON-CHRONIC SCHIZOPHRENICS, AFFECTIVELY DISTURBED PATIENTS AND NORMAL CONTROLS

Memory impairment has been reported among schizophrenics in several st udies. There are a number of uncertainties in interpreting such defici ts. The present study examined short- and long-term verbal memory in s chizophrenic patients (n = 30), affectively disturbed patients (n = 18 ) and normal controls (n = 18). Schizophrenics showed a significant de crease in memory test performance, compared with both normal controls and other psychiatric patients. Chronic schizophrenics seem to be char acterized by qualitatively different memory functioning compared with non-chronic subjects. In a free recall task chronic subjects showed si gnificantly decreased performance for the initial (primacy) and final (recency) items. Memory functioning was not correlated with performanc e on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test. This could indicate a selective cognitive dysfunction of an amnesic nature in chronic schizophrenics.