Reduced autobiographical memory specificity as an emotional avoidance strategy in opioid-dependent patients.

Abstract

This study investigates the reduced specificity of autobiographical memories in opioid-dependent patients and examines whether this phenomenon corresponds to an avoidance strategy in opioiddependent patients and among the general population. Thirty opioid-dependent patients and 30 control participants were given Williams' and Scott's Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) to evaluate the level of memory specificity. The use of cognitive avoidance strategy was measured with the Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire (CAQ) and the level of depression with the Beck Depression 13 inventory (BDI 13). The AMT results confirm reduced memory specificity in the dependent patients, both for dependent patients with a depression diagnosis and for nondepressive dependent patients. Results also depict that the more participants (patients and control) use cognitive strategies of avoidance, the less they recall specific memories with the AMT. These data support the emotional avoidance hypothesis of reduced memory specificity in opioid-dependent patients and in the general population, regardless of a diagnosis of depression. Further research is needed to identify the emotion regulation function of reduced specificity in dependent patients. Furthermore, our findings do not exclude the implication of other mechanisms within autobiographical memory retrieval bias for dependent patients, such as a deficit of executive control.

Characterization of Self‐Defining Memories in Individuals with Severe Alcohol Use Disorders After Mid‐Term Abstinence: The Impact of the Emotional Valence of Memories

“…Concerning the lack of specificity of the memories, this result is consistent with the observation of Cuervo‐Lombard and colleagues () in recently detoxified AUD patients and in studies using cue words to initiate the recall of memories (e.g., using the Autobiographical Memory Test) both in individuals with AUD (D'Argembeau et al., ; Whiteley et al., ) or with other substance addictions (Gandolphe and Nandrino, ; Gandolphe et al., ). Whatever the method used, the results showed that patients with AUD overgeneralized their AM, including SDM.…”

“…First, D'Argembeau and colleagues () and Whiteley and colleagues () showed that nonamnesic patients with AUD reported more general memories than specific memories. As described in other autobiographical models (Conway, ; Conway and Pleydell‐Pearce, ; Kopelman, ), this defect in AM specificity highlights the fact that as in other forms of addiction (Gandolphe et al., ; Nandrino et al., ), AUD patients have difficulty in accessing the specific perceptual and emotional material of AM. However, this phenomenon was not observed in AUD patients who had been abstinent for a longer period (6 months), whereas it was present in recently detoxified ones (Poncin et al., ).…”

La specificità della memoria autobiografica e il fenomeno dell'ipergeneralizzazione della memoria: note cliniche e di ricerca

“…A partire dallo studio appena citato, altre ricerche hanno confermato l'esistenza di una tendenza a richiamare ricordi categoriali e non ricordi specifici -definita ipergeneralizzazione della memoria (overgeneral memory) -come tratto (vale a dire condizione stabile) associato in particolare a depressione e stress post traumatico (McNally et al, 1995;Moore e Zoellern, 2007;Soderlund et al, 2014), ma anche, pur essendo la letteratura meno consolidata al riguardo, disturbi alimentari (Dalgleish et al, 2007), disturbo borderline di personalità (Startup et al, 2001) e abuso di sostanze (Gandolphe et al, 2013).…”

Investigating Autobiographical Memory Impairments in Chronic Heavy Cannabis Users: Methodology and Hypotheses

“…In this sense, several research teams have highlighted an increasing number of general autobiographical events among alcohol dependent [10][11][12], opiates users [13][14][15] and cannabis users [16].…”