Effects of major depressive disorder on episodic memory: a scoping review

Abstract

[eng] It is well known that people with major depressive disorder (MDD) may have some associated cognitive impairment. In this scoping review, we wanted to analyze the repercussions of depression on the performance of episodic memory. In addition, the demographic and clinical characteristics of patients have been shown to be relevant. Thus, our scoping review aims to analyze the implication of MDD in episodic memory in adults and to delineate possible gaps in the existing literature. We carried out a systematic search of the literature of primary studies published between 2002 and 2022, following PRISMA-ScR guidelines (Tricco et al., 2018). The initial search yielded 316 results, of which 16 were included in the final sample. The data were extracted as found in the original records and described taking into account our objectives and study quality according to JARS-Quant (Appelbaum et al., 2018). Our final results highlight the general good quality of the sample but also the high heterogeneity among studies. The findings provide no conclusive proof that episodic memory problems are caused by depression. Some discrepancy between the results may be caused by the nature of the assessment methods. Moreover, a better description of the sample and clinical characteristics would be an important issue for future studies.