Autobiographical memory processes and the course of depression.

Abstract

The authors report a 6-month follow-up study of clinically depressed patients. At baseline, 2 indexes of autobiographical memory functioning were assessed: the presence of spontaneous intrusive memories of stressful life events and performance on the Autobiographical Memory Test (J. M. G. Williams & K. Broadbent, 1986), which measures overgeneral memory. The index of overgeneral memory was associated with greater levels of spontaneous intrusion of stressful memories. Overgeneral memory did not predict outcome, but depression at follow-up was predicted by the amount of intrusion and avoidance of stressful memories, even after controlling for initial severity of psychiatric symptoms.

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity and rumination in predicting the course of depression.

“…About 29% of the first responses were OGMs, which is comparable to Brewin et al (1999), but lower than the percentage reported by Brittlebank et al (1993;54%). Information on the stability of scores is provided in Table 2.…”

Maternal versus paternal physical and emotional abuse, affect regulation and risk for depression from adolescence to early adulthood

“…First, prior research has raised concerns regarding the reliability of autobiographical memory and recall of lifetime abuse, especially among individuals with a history of depression (Brewin, Reynolds, & Tata, 1999;Mackinger, Pachinger, Leibetseder, & Fartacek, 2000). Second, the cumulative nature of lifetime assessments can potentially confound the inter-pretation of data from longitudinal studies that include multiple assessments as it can be difficult to determine whether results represent exposure from past versus recent events.…”

Congruência de humor em memórias autobiográficas de infância de indivíduos com depressão

“…Segundo Kuyken e Dalgleish (1995), nos sujeitos deprimidos existe um enviesamento negativo das memórias autobiográficas que é fundamental para a génese da depressão e sua manutenção, na medida em que reforça o ciclo depressivo. A depressão está assim associada a um enviesamento da memória, em que a quantidade de memórias de situações negativas é superior à de situações positivas (Brewin, Reynolds, & Tata, 1999;Williams, Watts, Macleod, & Mathews, 2000).…”