Memory Complaints and Memory Deficits in Young and Old Psychiatric Inpatients

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Abstract
Memory complaints and memory deficits were investigated in 206 consecutively admitted psychiatric inpatients at the Uni versity 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 depres sion 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 corre lated 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 (sensi tivity = 73%, specificity = 75%) but not in younger patients. Our results confirm the clinical observation that memory com plaints are a useful marker for depressed states in the elderly. (J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 1988;1:84-88).

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