Memory in Psychiatric Disorders: A Review

Memory constitutes a fundamental cognitive domain with its dysfunction possibly representing a core, transdiagnostic feature across major psychiatric disorders. This review aimed to integrate neurobiological, cognitive, and clinical evidence on domain-specific memory impairments in mood, anxiety, obsessive–compulsive, post-traumatic stress, and psychotic disorders. A comprehensive search was conducted on PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science up to November 2025 for peer-reviewed studies examining short-term, working, long-term, episodic, semantic, and prospective memory, prioritizing both landmark and recent contributions. The evidence indicates that memory dysfunction clusters primarily around working-memory control and episodic/autobiographical specificity, while procedural memory remains relatively preserved. Disorder-specific profiles include overgeneral autobiographical memory in major depression, enduring working and episodic deficits in bipolar disorder, variable impairments in anxiety disorders, functional rather than structural memory inefficiencies in obsessive–compulsive disorder, broad mnemonic disorganization in post-traumatic stress disorder, and pervasive working and episodic deficits in schizophrenia and related psychoses. Across conditions, converging neurobiological data implicate fronto-hippocampal dysconnectivity, altered plasticity, and impaired consolidation processes. These findings underscore the centrality of memory dysfunction in psychiatric pathophysiology and support a dimensional, mechanism-based approach integrating pharmacological, psychotherapeutic, and neurocognitive interventions to optimize functional recovery and treatment personalization.