Everyday memory in patients with depression: An explorative pilot study using an ecological assessment paradigm.

Background: People with major depressive disorder (MDD) often experience significant memory problems in their daily lives, which, however, frequently do not correspond to standardized memory test (SMT) results. The present pilot study aimed to examine the everyday memory performance of people with MDD by means of an ecological assessment paradigm (EAP).

Methods: Participants were unexpectedly called one week after their neuropsychological test assessment and asked about their memories of specific details of the former test situation. Associations of this EAP with SMT, subjective everyday memory problems, and symptom coping were exploratively analyzed.

Results: The study involved 22 MDD inpatients (M = 42.5 years, 64% female) and 22 comparable healthy control persons. MDD patients showed a significantly reduced performance in the EAP as well as in the SMT and they reported more memory problems in their daily lives. However, the EAP was not related to SMT results assessed a week before. Moreover, only the EAP was significantly associated with subjective daily memory problems and (distraction) coping style in the MDD group.

Conclusions: The EAP appears to better reflect the everyday memory problems of persons with depression than standardized test procedures. However, the findings need to be validated by further research with larger samples.