WORKING MEMORY IN PATIENTS WITH MILD AND MODERATE DEPRESSIVE EPISODE
Keywords:
Working memory; depressive episode; mild and moderate severity; n-back; rumination; executive function; residual cognitive impairment; processing speed.Abstract
Aim. To establish what is known about working memory specifically in adults with a mild or moderate depressive episode: whether the deficit exists in its own right or reduces to generalised slowing of processing and to a lowered willingness to expend effort; whether its magnitude depends on episode severity, number of past episodes and medication status; whether it persists in remission; and what follows from this for outpatient practice. Methods. Literature review. PubMed, Scopus, eLibrary and CyberLeninka were searched with priority given to work published in 2021–2026, using combinations of the terms “working memory”, “n-back”, “digit span”, “executive function”, “major depressive disorder”, “depressive episode”, “severity”, “remission”, “rumination” and their Russian equivalents. Earlier work was included only where it introduces a concept or remains the sole source of a value not recomputed since. Meta-analyses, systematic reviews, controlled studies and clinical guidelines concerning working memory or executive function in adults with unipolar depression were eligible. Bibliographic data and content of every source were verified against its PubMed record or DOI; work whose numerical results could not be confirmed was either excluded or is cited without numerical values, with this stated explicitly. The review includes 47 sources, of which 35 were published in 2021–2026 and 27 are meta-analyses or systematic reviews. Effect sizes were neither recalculated nor pooled; disagreements between sources are stated plainly rather than smoothed over.
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