The dissociation of explicit and implicit memory in depressed patients

• Published in: Psychological medicine Vol. 24; no. 1; p. 239
• Main Authors: Bazin, N, Perruchet, P, De Bonis, M, Féline, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England 01-02-1994
• Subjects: Adult; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Female; Humans; Male; Memory Disorders - diagnosis; Memory Disorders - etiology; Mental Recall; Middle Aged; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Psychological Tests; Task Performance and Analysis
• ISSN: 0033-2917
• DOI: 10.1017/S0033291700027008

Twenty-three in-patients fulfilling DSM-III-R criteria for major depressive disorder were submitted to a standard cued recall test, and to a word-stem completion test devised to assess the effect of the initial presentation without the explicit retrieval of the words being necessary. Results show that depressed patients are impaired on the cued recall task in comparison with controls matched for sex, age, and educational level. However, the two groups do not differ in the word-stem completion task. This dissociation between explicit and implicit expressions of memory disappeared when patients recovered, although they were still hospitalized and under psychotropic medication. These results are examined in the light of the distinction between effortful and automatic processes.