This study investigated underlying mechanisms of the verbal memory disorder associated with chronic alcoholism. Previous investigations have suggested that alcoholics are more vulnerable to interference effects on verbal learning and memory tasks, both with respect to retroactive interference (RI) and proactive interference (PI); this was the hypothesis of the current study. Measures of RI and build-up and release from PI were administered to 31 abstinent male chronic alcoholics and 24 healthy male nonalcoholic control subjects. Alcoholics demonstrated more sensitivity to RI than controls. Additionally, alcoholics displayed a more rapid build-up of PI, although they showed normal release. An increased interference effect was found to be a component of chronic alcoholics’ verbal memory impairment and may differentiate chronic alcoholism from other disorders affecting verbal learning and memory. (JINS, 1996, 2, 141–145.)

We compared the verbal learning and memory performance of 57 inpatients with unipolar major depression and 30 nondepressed control participants using the California Verbal Learning Test. The effect of age within this elderly sample was also examined, controlling for sex, educational attainment, and estimated level of intelligence. Except for verbal retention, the depressives had deficits in most aspects of performance, including cued and uncued recall and delayed recognition memory. As well, there were interactions between depression effects and age effects on some measures such that depressives' performance declined more rapidly with age than did the performance of controls. The results are discussed in the context of recent contradictory reports about the integrity of learning and memory functions in late-life depression. We conclude that there is consistent evidence, from this and other studies, that elderly depressed inpatients have significant deficits in a range of explicit verbal learning functions. (JINS, 1998, 4, 115–126.)