Memory performances in depressed patients during prophylactic treatment with lithium salts.

The study involved 42 subjects suffering from unipolar depression (35 females and 7 males) who had received 600-1,200 mg of lithium carbonate daily for periods ranging from 6 months to 7 years. Concurrently with the memory tests, the patients were also submitted to the Hamilton test for the evaluation of depression and blood samples were taken in order to measure lithium blood levels. In the groups of subjects examined by us (grouped according to lithemia, time on the drug and degree of depression, as, evaluated by Hamilton's test), significant differences were found only in the short-term figure test and, partially, in the long term memory verbal test.