title: Memory complaints and memory deficits in young and old psychiatric inpatients.
abstract: Memory complaints and memory deficits were investigated in 206 consecutively admitted psychiatric inpatients at the University of Iowa Psychiatric Hospital. Forty-five percent of patients over age 60 years and 29% of patients less than 60 years old had severe memory complaints. Patients with complaints of memory loss were no more likely than patients without such complaints to have a memory deficit. In patients over age 60 years, memory complaint was more common in depression than in dementing and amnestic disorders (73% v 43%), while in younger patients memory complaint was slightly more common in dementing and amnestic disorders than in depression (57% v 41%). Increasing age was significantly correlated with increasing likelihood of memory complaint for depressed patients but not for nondepressed patients. As a result of these findings, memory complaint was found to be a statistically significant marker for depression in the elderly (sensitivity = 73%, specificity = 75%) but not in younger patients. Our results confirm the clinical observation that memory complaints are a useful marker for depressed states in the elderly.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242.
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Chandler
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gerndt
mesh_terms: D000275:Adjustment Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000523:psychology; D000647:Amnesia / Q000523:psychology; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged