Source memory in major depression

Abstract

Background: Research demonstrating episodic memory deficits in clinical depression has dealt with item memory exclusively. The present research sought to determine whether memory for source is differentially affected by depression. Methods: Patients with major depression and normal control subjects were examined in item memory and two types of source memory, requiring discriminations between (e.g. something that the subject said and something another person said) and within (e.g. something that one person said and something another person said) classes. Results: Depression-related deficits in item memory were exacerbated in source memory. However, deficits in source memory in depressed patients were restricted to those conditions requiring within-class discriminations. Conclusion: The overall pattern of results may reflect that those symptoms of major depression that affect the individuals basic processing resources (e.g. concentration difficulties, lack of effort, loss of energy) results in an impairment of episodic memory, particularly when the demands of differentiating perceptual and cognitive information are high.