Comparison of Memory Deficits among Chronic Schizophrenics, Drug Addicts, and Normals

Differences of memory deficits among chronic schizophrenics, drug addicts, and normals were investigated in the present study. Purposive sample (N = 75) of hospitalized patients, consisting of chronic schizophrenics (n = 25), drug addicts (n = 25), and normals (n = 25) was taken from Services Hospital, Mayo Hospital, Fountain House, and Mental Hospital, Lahore, Pakistan. No matching on gender and type of drug usage was carried out. Six different memory tests, verbal (story memory, words memory, non-sense syllables) and non-verbal (Visual Reproduction-sub test of Wechsler Memory Scale (Wechsler & Stone, 1948), Memory for Design test (Graham & Kendall, 1960), and Rey Complex Figure (Rey, 1941) were administered in the same order. Results supported the presence of memory deficits among chronic schizophrenics and drug addicts as compared to normal controls. Furthermore, chronic schizophrenics performed poorly on Words Memory test (meaningful) as compared to drug addicts.