Engelsmann F, Katz J, Ghadirian A M, Schachter D
Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
J Clin Psychopharmacol. 1988 Jun;8(3):207-12.
This study examined the effects of long-term lithium therapy on memory functions in 18 patients suffering from bipolar affective disorder. Patients were retested on the Wechsler Memory Scale, Benton Visual Retention Test, and Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale 6 years after initial testing. Mean memory test scores remained remarkably stable over the 6-year interval with only one of the 10 memory subtests showing a statistically, but not clinically, significant decrease. The sample was split at the median duration of lithium therapy into a long- and shorter term group (with means of 12.9 and 5.2 years, respectively). There were no significant differences between these groups on any of the memory tests when controlled for age and initial memory scores. Negative correlations between several memory test scores and the duration of lithium treatment could in part be explained by the effects of age. Patients' subjective complaints of impaired memory functioning, rated on a visual analogue scale, correlated with the level of depression at the second testing as well as with three memory test scores measuring immediate and short-term visual recall. The results are discussed in view of the demographic and clinical characteristics of the sample and are compared with previous research findings.
本研究考察了长期锂盐治疗对18例双相情感障碍患者记忆功能的影响。患者在初次测试6年后，再次接受韦氏记忆量表、本顿视觉保持测验和zung自评抑郁量表测试。在6年的时间间隔内，记忆测试的平均分数保持相当稳定，10个记忆子测验中只有1个显示出统计学上而非临床上的显著下降。根据锂盐治疗的中位数时长，将样本分为长期治疗组和短期治疗组（平均时长分别为12.9年和5.2年）。在控制年龄和初始记忆分数后，两组在任何记忆测试中均无显著差异。几个记忆测试分数与锂盐治疗时长之间的负相关部分可由年龄效应来解释。患者在视觉模拟量表上对记忆功能受损的主观抱怨，与第二次测试时的抑郁水平以及测量即时和短期视觉回忆的三个记忆测试分数相关。结合样本的人口统计学和临床特征对结果进行了讨论，并与之前的研究结果进行了比较。
