Effects of mood and severity on memory processes in depression and mania.

This article examines the relation between mood state, severity of psychopathology, and memory in the affective disorders by reviewing the literature concerned with memory processes in depression and mania. On the basis of this review, a model is presented that tries to reconcile the varied findings encountered in the literature. Specifically, this model proposes that memory processes in these disorders result from the operation of two diagnostically nonspecific mechanisms, mood state and severity of psychopathology. Mood state is thought to affect memory in two related ways: (a) by activating a negative self-schema that is responsible for the selective encoding and retrieval of information congruent with the current state, and (b) by providing contextual cues that result in the activation of mood-state-congruent memory associations. The effect of severity of pathology is also proposed to occur via one or both of two possible routes: (a) by disrupting trace processing and storage by its disorganizational nature, and/or (b) by producing low levels of effort in encoding and storage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)