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The relationship between Persian Gulf veterans performance in neuropsychological measures of memory and MMPI-2 scores on measures of depression
Abstract
This study compared Persian Gulf Veterans who complained of memory difficulties to those who did not complain on neuropsychological measures of memory and MMPI-2 scores on measures of depression. The Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised-Logical Memory I & II, Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised-Visual Reproduction I & II, and the California Verbal Learning Test were administered to assess performance on measures of memory. In addition the MMPI-2 was administered in order to assess the level of depression as measured by Scale 2 (D Scale) and the DEP Content Scale. It was hypothesized that Persian Gulf Veterans who complained of memory difficulties and were consequently referred for neuropsychological testing would demonstrate more deficits on the measures of memory than Persian Gulf Veterans who had not complained. It was also hypothesized that Persian Gulf Veterans who complained of memory difficulties would exhibit higher levels of depression as measured by the MMPI-2 than their non-complaint peers and that these differences in level of depression would account for some, but not all the differences between the groups on the measures of memory. The results of this study support the theory that Persian Gulf Veterans who complain of memory deficits do show some differences in performance on objective memory measures when compared to their non-complaint peers, particularly in the area of visual memory. Support was found for the view that many of the differences between the groups are likely due to the effects of depression although some differences remained even after accounting for these effects, particularly on the measure of immediate recall of visual information and short delay cued recall of verbal list information. In spite of these differences, neither group demonstrated clinically significant deficits on the measures indicating that memory complaint may indeed be more related to level of depression, even mild levels, than actual deficits on measures of memory.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy|Physiological psychology
Recommended Citation
Terryberry-Spohr, Lori S, "The relationship between Persian Gulf veterans performance in neuropsychological measures of memory and MMPI-2 scores on measures of depression" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9615003.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9615003