MEMORY PERFORMANCE, SELF-REPORTED MEMORY LOSS AND DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS IN ATTENDERS AT A GP-REFERRAL AND A SELF-REFERRAL MEMORY CLINIC

Reports of declining memory are common with increasing age. Sometimes these are corroborated by poor memory test performance, but often they appear to be more closely related to depressive symptomatology. As pharmacological treatments emerge for improving cognition in the elderly, understanding the aetiology of memory complaints will become increasingly important. This article compares memory performance, reports of memory loss and depressive symptoms in attenders at a GP-referral and a self-referral memory clinic, with age- and sex-matched community controls. The GP-referred patients were older, had lower MMSE scores and had levels of memory complaint and depression between the control and self-referred subjects. The self-referrers had cognitive test performance similar to community controls but complained more of memory loss, were more depressed and more frequently reported a past history of treated depression. Self-presentation of memory complaint appears to be more closely related to affective and possibly personality factors than memory test performance.