Antidepressants and memory: A review

Abstract

Antidepressant medications have been in general use since the late 1950s. Many patients are treated as outpatients and often continue with their normal routines during treatment. Individuals may undertake activities where any change in memory functioning, negative or positive, might have important consequences. Furthermore, many antidepressants have similar efficacy. Information about differential effects upon memory would seem valuable information for the clinician to have at his or her disposal. This paper reviews available evidence on the effects of antidepressants on human memory. Many studies have involved the single or short‐term administration of antidepressants to healthy volunteers, thereby not acknowledging that depression per se has a negative impact on memory processes. Even in the studies on patient samples, groups very with regard to type and severity of depression, dosage and duration of treatment. Limited evidence, however, does suggest that antidepressants may exert differential effects upon memory functioning which could be predicted from their action on specific neurotransmitter system.

Residual cognitive impairments in remitted depressed patients

“…Serotonergic antidepressants may have some sedative side effects, but these tend to wear off in the first 2 weeks of treatment [Amado-Boccara et al, 1995] and the effects on memory and psychomotor performance are of low intensity [Gorenstein et al, 2006;Thompson, 1991]. In contrast, SSRIs have been found to positively affect neutral and emotional information processing acutely and after 7-14 days [Bhagwagar et al, 2004;Harmer et al, 2002Harmer et al, , 2003aHarmer et al, , 2004Harmer et al, , 2006.…”

Maudsley Bipolar Disorder Project: insights sobre o papel do córtex pré-frontal em pacientes com transtorno de humor bipolar tipo I

“…It is possible that antipsychotic-13 induced reduction in speed of information processing is responsible for some of these findings. In terms of other psychotropics, anticonvulsants, antidepressants and lithium cause only minor cognitive changes in healthy subjects [33][34][35] which is commensurate with the lack of an association between cognitive variables and treatment with "mood stabilizers" in this study. However, there was only a small number of individuals not taking mood stabilizers, so there may be insufficient power to detect an effect.…”

INECO frontal screening: um instrumento para avaliar as funções executivas na depressão

“…O facto de este aspecto não ter sido controlado fez com que a nossa amostra representasse claramente o tipo de doentes depressivos que se verifica em ambiente clínico. Tem sido demonstrado que os antidepressivos em doses habituais não interferem muito no desempenho cognitivo (Thompson, 1991), no entanto o uso de benzodiazepínicos é definitivamente conhecido por afetar a capacidade de julgamento.…”