UC San Diego

Keenan and colleagues (1998) have demonstrated that episodic memory is diminished during pregnancy and returns to baseline in the postpartum period. Given that memory deficits may occur in major depression, possible memory deficits during pregnancy could be exacerbated by major depression. The present study examined memory performance in 37 pregnant women, 14 of whom met clinical criteria for a Major Depressive Episode (MDE) as defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th Edition (DSM-IV), and 23 normal control (NC) pregnant women who had no current or prior history of depression. Additionally, postpartum groups consisted of 21 postpartum women, 11 of whom met clinical criteria for a MDE, and 10 NC postpartum women. The study utilized a 2 x 2 Multivariate Analysis of Variance design to compare memory performance and sleep of pregnant and postpartum women with and without major depression. The study demonstrated that pregnancy and major depression were both associated with poorer performance in a task involving verbal learning and memory. Specifically, on the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT), pregnant women learned significantly fewer words from trials one through five; recalled significantly fewer words on trial one, short delay free and cued recall, and long delay free and cued recall; and utilized a semantic clustering strategy significantly fewer than postpartum women. Depressed patients learned significantly fewer words from trials one through five, recalled significantly fewer words on CVLT long delay free recall, and utilized a semantic clustering strategy significantly fewer than NC women. No alterations in outcomes of the above analyses were found when age, education, weeks pregnant/postpartum, or circadian preference were applied as covariates. The present results are consistent with previous investigations of memory functioning of major depressive disorder and healthy pregnant and postpartum women. That is, pregnant and depressed women exhited poorer performance in tasks involving verbal learning and memory compared with postpartum and NC women