Abstracts

Research examining subjective memory complaints and objective memory performance has yielded discrepant results across patient populations. Although many investigations have found the severity of self-reported subjective memory complaints were not associated with diminished material-specific memory performance, results have been contradictory depending upon the sample of patients studied. This study was undertaken to determine whether objective verbal and nonverbal memory test performance relates to the severity of self-reported verbal or nonverbal memory complaints in epilepsy surgery patients., [italic]Subjects.[/italic] The memory test performances of 44 epilepsy surgery patients were selected from a database of patients who received a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation as a part of their standard pre- or post-surgical care, which include a series of standardized memory tests and a 58-item self-report memory complaints inventory (Memory Complaints Inventory [MCI], Green, 2004). [italic]Measures.[/italic] Neuropsychological memory tests included: Selective Reminding Test (SRT, 6-Trials), Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure Test (ROCFT), and the following WMS-III subtests: Logical Memory (LM), Verbal Paired Associates (PA), Faces, and Family Pictures (FP). Patients also completed the MCI, a self-report measure of memory difficulties comprised of 9 subscales (e.g., Verbal Memory Problems, Visuospatial Memory Problems), in which a higher score reflects greater subjective memory complaints., Patients with subjective verbal memory complaints performed significantly worse on Consistent Long-Term Retrieval on the SRT ([italic]p [/italic]= .004), Long-Term Storage on the SRT ([italic]p[/italic] = .029), Delayed Free Recall on the SRT ([italic]p[/italic] = .026), WMS-III-PA I ([italic]p[/italic] = .0027), and WMS-III-PA II ([italic]p[/italic] = .003) than those without verbal memory complaints. Patients with subjective spatial memory complaints also performed significantly worse than those without nonverbal complaints on Consistent Long-Term Retrieval on the SRT ([italic]p [/italic]= .02), Long Term Storage on the SRT ([italic]p[/italic] = .0047), WMS-III PA I ([italic]p[/italic] = .008), and WMS-III PA II ([italic]p[/italic] = .033), but not on other measures of objective memory performance. There were no significant differences in objective verbal or nonverbal memory performance among those with left or right hemisphere pathology and/or seizure onset., Increased memory complaints were associated with reduced memory performance on the Selective Reminding Test and WMS-III Paired Associate learning among epilepsy surgery patients with both verbal and nonverbal subjective memory complaints. In contrast to studies in other patient groups, the severity of self-reported subjective memory impairment appears to be associated with poorer objective memory performance among epilepsy surgery patients both before and after surgery., (Supported by the Medical College of Georgia.)