Executive Functions and Working Memory in Depressive and Anxiety Disorders: a Systematic Review of the Literature
Abstract:
Objective: Major Depressive Disorder and anxiety disorders are some of the most prevalent and disabling psy chopathological conditions and are often associated with changes in cognitive functioning. Among the potentially affected domains, working memory is particularly relevant due to its central role in maintaining, updating, and manipulating the information necessary for the regulation of goal-oriented behavior. Despite increasing research in this area, the evidence regarding the impact of these disorders on working memory remains heterogeneous and marked by inconsistent results. The present study aimed to analyze and critically synthesize the available empirical evidence on the impact of major depressive disorders, anxiety disorders and their comorbidity on working memory performance in adults, compared to individuals without mental disorders.
Methods: For this purpose, a systematic review of the literature was carried out according to the PRISMA rec ommendations. The literature search was conducted in the Web of Science, Scopus and ScienceDirect databases, covering studies published between 2015 and 2025. After the process of identification, screening, evaluation of eli gibility and application of the criteria defined according to the PICO model, four studies were included in the final qualitative synthesis.
Results: The results suggest that major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders are associated with changes in working memory performance, particularly in tasks characterized by high cognitive load, emotional interference, prolonged maintenance of information and greater demands for attentional control. However, the evidence ana lyzed does not support the existence of a global and uniform deficit of working memory. On the contrary, the results point to a pattern of lower efficiency of cognitive control, manifested through greater vulnerability to interference, slowing processing and increased difficulties in cognitively demanding conditions. In addition, there was a high methodological heterogeneity among the included studies and a lack of research specifically dedicated to the role of comorbidity between depression and anxiety. It is thus concluded that the impact of major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders on working memory seems to reflect mainly changes in the functional efficiency of cognitive control mechanisms, rather than a generalized reduction in mnesic capacity.
Conclusions: These data reinforce the need for future research with more standardized methodologies, greater con trol of confounding variables and increased attention to the impact of comorbidity on cognitive processes.
