A study on prospective memory in chronic primary insomnia / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

ObjectiveTo explore the characteristics and the pathogenetic mechanism of prospective memory in patients with chronic primary insomnia. Methods Forty-two patients with chronic primary insomnia and forty age,gender,education,and cultural level matched healthy adults were assessed with a battery of neuropsychological tests including event-based prospective memory (EBPM)and time-based prospective memory (TBPM) tasks.ResultsCompared with the healthy controls ( EBPM 5.58 ± 0.35 ;TBPM 4.10 ± 0.32),the patients with chronic primary insomnia had a significant loss in EBPM (3.44 ±0.40,t =3.933,P =0.000),but a insignificant impairment in TBPM (3.76 ± 0.29,t =0.787,P =0.433 ).The retrospective component of event-based prospective memory between the two groups had no significant difference ( t =1.308,P =0.195 ) ,neither did the retrospective component of time-based prospective memory ( Z =- 0.776,P =0.437 ).ConclusionThese results suggest that the patients with chronic primary insomnia have impairment in EBPM,but not in TBPM and the retrospective component of prospective memory.