AUTHOR=Held Judith , Ramadani Laura , Vîslă Andreea , Köllner Volker , Hilpert Peter , Flückiger Christoph TITLE=Examining Working Memory Performance in Adult Psychosomatic Inpatients JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology VOLUME=12 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.589809 DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2021.589809 ISSN=1664-1078 ABSTRACT=Background

There is cumulating evidence that working memory (WM) processing is impaired in individuals suffering from a psychosomatic and a psychological disorder. However, it is unclear how repetitive negative thinking (RNT), depressive symptoms, and patient characteristics (i.e., age and incapability to work) contribute to WM impairments. The present study examines how these factors affect WM performance in highly distressed adult psychosomatic inpatients.

Methods

Seventy-six inpatients (Mage = 52.7, SD = 8.4) from a psychosomatic rehabilitation clinic performed a two-block WM updating task, with accuracy and reaction time as indicators of WM functioning.

Results

Multivariate mixed effect model results show that accuracy and reaction time significantly decreased from WM Block 1 to WM Block 2. Higher levels of RNT, more severe depressive symptoms and higher age were associated with worse WM accuracy in Block 1. None of these variables were significantly associated with WM reaction time (in Block 1).

Conclusion

From a clinical perspective, the results suggest that screening for the presence of high RNT levels, severe depressive symptoms or higher age may help to identify patients with impaired WM functioning and to intervene on these important patient characteristics early in the rehabilitation process.