THE EFFECT OF STRESS ON MEMORY IMPAIRMENT IN DEPRESSION AND AND SCHIZOPHRENIA

Abstract

Stress is a crucial contributor to memory impairment. This study examined the association between psychiatric illness (depression and schizophrenia) and verbal memory impairment, with stress being the potential mediator. In the current study, 28 healthy controls, 32 MDD patients and 28 Schizophrenic patients were assessed by the Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale and Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS) battery. After controlling for age, gender, years of education, marital status, occupation, age of illness onset, duration of illness, duration of untreated illness, number of hospitalisations, duration of hospitalisations, patient group, stress was found to predict additional variance of verbal memory scores. Higher stress level is present in schizophrenia and is correlated with worse memory impairment in schizophrenic patients as compared to depressed patients. This shows that stress reduction and management is important as this could lessen the impact of stress on verbal memory impairment in clinically diagnosed groups and the general public.