Verbal Working Memory Capacity in Patients with Chronic Schizophrenia, Chronic Depression, and Healthy Participants.

Objectives
The new standard computerized reading span test (RST), which is a complex verbal working memory test, was used for the first time in the assessment of verbal working memory capacity (Van den Noort et al., 2008) in two clinical populations.

Methods
Sixty participants, divided over three different groups; 20 patients with chronic schizophrenia, 20 patients with chronic depression, and 20 healthy participants, entered the study. The selection of the participants was based on strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. There was no comorbid depression in the patients with schizophrenia, as measured by the BDI-II. A comparison was made between the 3 different groups with respect to their verbal working memory capacity. The new standard computerized RST (Van den Noort et al., 2008) was used.

Results
In this study, in line with previous studies, a significant decrease in verbal working memory capacity and a general slowing down was found in chronic patients with schizophrenia and chronic patients with depression in comparison with healthy participants. In addition, patients with schizophrenia showed a nearly significant higher reading span score but were significantly slower than the chronic patients with depression.

Conclusions
The new standard computerized RST (Van den Noort et al., 2008) is a suitable complex verbal working memory test that could be used for clinical applications, for instance, for the assessment of verbal working memory capacity in patients with chronic schizophrenia and chronic depression.