A Meta-Analysis of Autobiographical Memory Studies in Schizophrenia ă Spectrum Disorder

Meta-analyses and reviews on cognitive disorders in schizophrenia have ă shown that the most robust and common cognitive deficits are found in ă episodic memory and executive functions. More complex memory domains, ă such as autobiographical memory (AM), are also impaired in ă schizophrenia, but such impairments are reported less often despite ă their negative impact on patients' outcome. In contrast to episodic ă memory, assessed in laboratory tasks, memories of past personal events ă are much more complex and directly relate to the self. The meta-analysis ă included 20 studies, 571 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, ă and 503 comparison subjects. It found moderate-to-large effect sizes ă with regard to the 3 parameters commonly used to assess AM: memory ă specificity (g = -0.97), richness of detail (g = -1.40), and conscious ă recollection (g = -0.62). These effect sizes were in the same range as ă those found in other memory domains in schizophrenia; for this reason, ă we propose that defective memories of personal past events should be ă regarded as a major cognitive impairment in this illness.