Memory functioning in chronic and non-chronic schizophrenics, affectively disturbed patients and normal controls.

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