Prospective and retrospective memory in adolescent relatives of patients with schizophrenia: genetic risk, victimization, and their interactions

Objective To examine deficits in prospective and retrospective memory among adolescent relatives of patients with schizophrenia and to examine the role of genetic risk,victimization,and their interactions on the deficits.Methods The study included 92 non-affected adolescent offspring and siblings(aged 9-20 years) of schizophrenia patients in the relative group and 193 healthy adolescents in the healthy control group.All participants completed Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire(PRMQ) and Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire-Child Self-Report Version(JVQ).Results The multivariate analysis of co-variance(MANCOVA)revealed that the relative group reported more difficulties in prospective and retrospective memory than controls,with the PRMQ scores of 19.3±6.5 vs.16.6±5.8 and 19.3±6.2 vs.16.4±5.3(both P<0.05); significant main effects of victimization level on the two memory domains were observed(both P<0.05); and the interaction of group category and victimization level on the two domains was also significant(both P<0.05).The analysis of variance(ANOVA) analysis revealed that in relative group,the adolescents who experienced poly-victimizations reported higher scores in on both prospective and retrospective memory compared with those without victimization(23.6±5.4 vs.16.9±6.6 and 22.5±4.4 vs.16.8±6.1; both P<0.01),and a higher score for retrospective memory than those without poly-victimization(23.6±5.4 vs.18.8±6.0,P<0.05).However,no significant main effects of victimization level on both prospective and retrospective memory were found in the healthy control adolescents(all P>0.05).Conclusion The results suggest there are impairments in prospective and retrospective memory among adolescent relatives of schizophrenia patients and the interaction of genetic risk for schizophrenia and victimization may be related to the memory deficits in the adolescent relatives.