Iranian Depressed Patients Attempting Suicide Showed Impaired Memory and Problem-Solving

Two cognitive measures, autobiographical memory test & means-ends problem-solving task, Persian versions, were used to assess 20 parasuicide patients who met diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder. Suicide attempters were more depressed & more hopeless than matched healthy subjects. Results showed the parasuicides produced more overgeneral memories & responded more slowly to positive than negative cue-word, compared to control subjects. In the problem-solving task, the patients provided less effective strategies, fewer means, & more irrelevant means. There were significant correlations between autobiographical memory & problem-solving variables. (20 refs.)