Word recognition memory before and after successful treatment of depression

One of the most frequent and neuropsychologically well investigated symptom s in depression is reduced memory capacity. In this study, we investigated the course of disease in 16 patients with moderate depression and Borna dis ease virus (BDV) infection. Recently, it could be shown that BDV infection might play an important role in the etiology of subtypes of depression. Ama ntadine treatment was used as an antidepressant and antiviral compound. In order to assess memory capacity, event-related potentials (ERPs) were evalu ated in ten of sixteen patients in a continuous word recognition experiment using a series of emotionally neutral, positive or negative words. During the treatment period the patients' clinical condition improved significantl y. ERPs showed a reduced old/new effect before and after treatment independ ent of the words' emotional content. These findings suggest a reduced memor y capacity being relatively independent of clinical outcome and ability to use emotional connotations for memory mechanisms. However, a significant po sitive shift over frontal electrodes did occur, which was concomitant with the improvement of depression, suggesting evidence for changed frontal cort ical activity.