Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

The impact of clinical depression on working memory

Christopher, Gary; MacDonald, John

Authors

John MacDonald



Abstract

Introduction. Both Channon, Baker, and Robertson (1993) and Hartlage, Alloy, Vazquez, and Dykman (1993) claim that working memory impairment in depressed patients is limited to Baddeley's (1996) central executive and does not affect either the phonological loop or the visuospatial scratchpad. Our key questions were: (1) is there an impairment of working memory in depression and which elements does it effect; (2) is another major clinical group also affected and in what ways, and finally, (3) how do these groups vary when compared with each other and with normals? Thus we sought to locate a depression-specific effect and define its extent. Methods. We tested 35 depressed patients, using both 24 anxiety patients and 29 normal controls as comparisons. Several tasks were used so that we could differentiate between the three key aspects of working memory. Results. Contrary to Channon et al., we found that depression affects the allocation of attention and all elements of working memory. The depression group showed a distinct performance profile, with impairments occurring on measures of both the phonological loop and visuospatial sketch pad. On measures of central executive functioning, both depression and anxiety groups showed comparable levels of impairment when compared with the control group. Conclusions. We propose that the source of general disruption in both depressed and anxious patients may be a competition between attempts to direct attentional resources to the task in hand and away from the distractive and intrusive effects of automatic negative thoughts. © 2005 Psychology Press Ltd.

Citation

Christopher, G., & MacDonald, J. (2005). The impact of clinical depression on working memory. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 10(5), 379-399. https://doi.org/10.1080/13546800444000128

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Nov 1, 2005
Journal Cognitive Neuropsychiatry
Print ISSN 1354-6805
Electronic ISSN 1464-0619
Publisher Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 10
Issue 5
Pages 379-399
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/13546800444000128
Keywords working memory, depression
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1054305
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13546800444000128