Comparing the memory performances of anxiety disorders patients with healthy control group

Anxiety disorders are an important group of psychiatric disorders, which significantly impair daily life of one out of four people. In these disorders, cognitive functions may be affected in different ways depending on the type and severity of the disorder. Majority of the research about effects of anxiety disorders on cognitive functions has been carried on OCD patients. Despite this, there are not enough researches on the other subgroups of anxiety disorders. The main aim of this research is to show whether or not anxiety disorders have impairing effects on the memory function. Moreover, since attention have a strong relationship with the memory function, attention function will also be examined.This research have been carried on 30 OCD patients, 30 PD patients and 30 healthy controls who had admitted to Psychiatry Outpatient Unit of Gazi University Medical Faculty Hospital. First, a diagnostic interview was made by using SCID-I, then Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI-1 ve STAI-2) were given to the patients who meet diagnostic criteria .Results have shown that; both OCD and PD patients had showed worse performance than control group in attention, short term memory, long term memory and learning functions. Moreover, patients with PD showed worse performance than the patients with OCD in visual-verbal component of short term memory and retrieval function.These findings are consistent with the previous researches which argue that anxiety disorders, in chronic terms cause memory and related cognitive dysfunctions. In conclusion, further research done with larger sample size and standardized materials is needed to better understand the relationship between anxiety and memory.