Unit of Research and Development, Sant Joan de Déu - Serveis de Salut Mental, C\ Doctor Antoni Pujadas 42, 08830 Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain.
J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2009 Spring;21(2):206-15. doi: 10.1176/jnp.2009.21.2.206.
The authors undertook a study of the clinical correlates of verbal memory deficits in schizophrenia. The first purpose was to replicate the finding of a significant association between depression and impairment in the deep encoding memory processes. The second purpose was to test the hypothesis that certain clinical symptoms--avolition, disorders of attention--also play a role in verbal memory impairment, distinct from a global negative symptomatology score. Forty-one patients with schizophrenia underwent a memory task including forward digit span and learning lists of words with different levels of semantic organization. Regression analyses revealed that the depression score was associated with the total number of recalled words, whereas the global negative symptom score was not. Depression score was not associated with the forward digit span, a measure of superficial serial encoding processes. An analysis of individual symptoms from the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS) indicated that avolition was associated with several memory scores, suggesting a pervasive effect of this symptom. Attention disorders were associated with impaired efficiency in serial learning, but not with word recall efficiency. It is suggested that more consideration should be given to depression and motivation in the investigation of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia, as well as in cognitive remediation strategies.
作者对精神分裂症患者的言语记忆缺陷的临床相关性进行了研究。第一个目的是复制抑郁与深度编码记忆过程损伤之间存在显著关联的发现。第二个目的是检验以下假设，即某些临床症状——意志减退、注意力障碍——在言语记忆损伤中也起作用，与整体负性症状评分不同。41 名精神分裂症患者接受了一项记忆任务，包括顺背数字广度和不同语义组织水平的单词学习列表。回归分析显示，抑郁评分与回忆的单词总数有关，而整体负性症状评分则无关。抑郁评分与顺背数字广度（一种浅层序列编码过程的衡量标准）无关。对阴性症状评定量表（SANS）中的个别症状的分析表明，意志减退与多项记忆评分有关，表明该症状具有普遍影响。注意力障碍与序列学习效率低下有关，但与单词回忆效率无关。作者建议，在研究精神分裂症的认知损伤以及认知矫正策略时，应更多地考虑抑郁和动机因素。
