title: Depressed mood in individuals with schizophrenia: A comparison of retrospective and real-time measures.
abstract: Depressed mood is prevalent among individuals with schizophrenia, leading to difficulties in functioning. Typically, depressed mood is evaluated using retrospective assessments during which individuals are asked to recall their mood during the past week or month. However, as individuals with schizophrenia may display memory difficulties, the results of such assessments may be biased, potentially leading to inaccurate clinical characterizations and/or suboptimal treatment. Our aim was to assess the potential impact of long-term memory on depressed mood in individuals with schizophrenia. Employing an Experience Sampling Method (ESM) approach, 51 individuals with schizophrenia and 22 healthy controls rated their momentary emotions up to 10 times/day over a two-day period, along with retrospective measures of depressed mood, long-term memory, quality of life, social functioning, and symptoms. ESM assessment of real-time depressed mood demonstrated discriminant and convergent validity. Among the schizophrenia group, there was a significant correlation between the real-time and retrospective measures of depressed mood. However, once variance due to long-term memory was controlled, the relationship between the real-time and retrospective measure was no longer significant. The findings suggest that a real-time measure of depressed mood may allow overcoming some of the limitations associated with long-term memory difficulties common among individuals with schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY, USA. Electronic address: kimhyda@nyspi.columbia.edu.
authors.forename: Lisa H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Blum
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vakhrusheva
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saperstein
authors.affiliation: New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Samira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.affiliation: New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.affiliation: New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Marie C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Vance
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Zemon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kimhy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D057567:Memory, Long-Term; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012565:Schizophrenic Psychology
keywords: Depression; Experience sampling method (ESM); Long-term memory; Schizophrenia