A pilot randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of MEmory Specificity Training in improving symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder

Moradi, Alireza; Moshirpanahi, Shiva; Parhon, Hadi; Mirzaei, Javad; Dalgleish, Tim; Jobson, Laura

doi:10.1016/j.brat.2014.03.002

Cited by 107 publications

(110 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Similar encouraging data are also emerging from the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) literature [26]. It is now time for the next stage of the treatment development process.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 54%

A comparison of MEmory Specificity Training (MEST) to education and support (ES) in the treatment of recurrent depression: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

Dalgleish

Bevan

McKinnon

et al. 2014

Trials

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BackgroundDepression is a debilitating mental health problem that tends to run a chronic, recurrent course. Even when effectively treated, relapse and recurrence rates remain high. Accordingly, interventions need to focus not only on symptom reduction, but also on reducing the risk of relapse by targeting depression-related disturbances that persist into remission. We are addressing this need by investigating the efficacy, acceptability and feasibility of a MEmory Specificity Training (MEST) programme, which directly targets an enduring cognitive marker of depression - reduced autobiographical memory specificity. Promising pilot data suggest that training memory specificity ameliorates this disturbance and reduces depressive symptoms. A larger, controlled trial is now needed to examine the efficacy of MEST. This trial compares MEST to an education and support (ES) group, with an embedded mechanism study.Methods/DesignIn a single blind, parallel cluster randomised controlled trial, 60 depressed individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for a current major depressive episode will be recruited from the community and clinical services. Using a block randomisation procedure, groups of 5 to 8 participants will receive five weekly sessions of MEST (n = 30) or education and support (n = 30). Participants will be assessed immediately post-treatment, and at 3- and 6-months post-treatment (MEST group only for 6-month follow-up). Depressive symptoms at 3-month follow-up will be the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes will be change in depressive status and memory specificity at post-treatment and 3-months. The 6-month follow-up of the MEST group will allow us to examine whether treatment gains are maintained. An explanatory question will examine variables mediating improvement in depression symptoms post-treatment and at 3-month follow-up.DiscussionThis trial will allow us to investigate the efficacy of MEST, whether treatment gains are maintained, and the mechanisms of change. Evidence will be gathered regarding whether this treatment is feasible and acceptable as a low-intensity intervention. If efficacy can be demonstrated, the results will support MEST as a treatment for depression and provide the foundation for a definitive trial.Trial registrationNCT01882452 (ClinicalTrials.gov), registered on 18 June 2013.

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“…Similar encouraging data are also emerging from the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) literature [26]. It is now time for the next stage of the treatment development process.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 54%

A comparison of MEmory Specificity Training (MEST) to education and support (ES) in the treatment of recurrent depression: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

Dalgleish

Bevan

McKinnon

et al. 2014

Trials

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…It is hypothesized that the more abstract nature of worry allows individuals to disengage and avoid arousing emotional processing towards the anticipated threat, but doing so can have adverse long-term consequences, such as reducing the likelihood that these individuals will imagine their future in a sufficiently concrete fashion to actually cope with the problem (Borkovec et al, 1998; Williams, 2006; Williams et al, 1996). Indeed, recent evidence has shown that increasing the specificity of autobiographical memory and concreteness of mental imagery can be linked to improvements in depressive symptoms (Lang, Blackwell, Harmer, Davison, & Holmes, 2012; Neshat-Doost et al, 2012; Raes, Williams, & Hermans, 2009) and PTSD symptoms (Moradi et al, 2014) with respect to negative and distressing past events, and can also be beneficial for processing worrisome future events that have not yet been experienced (Jing et al, 2016; Skodzik, Leopold, & Ehring, 2017; for review, see Hitchcock, Werner-Seidler, Blackwell, & Dalgleish, 2017). Thus, imagining a smaller number of alternative outcomes in more specific, concrete detail may be just as beneficial in reducing pessimistic future predictions as accessing more alternative outcomes overall, and more research should be conducted to shed light on this point.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparing for what might happen: An episodic specificity induction impacts the generation of alternative future events

2017

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A critical adaptive feature of future thinking involves the ability to generate alternative versions of possible future events. However, little is known about the nature of the processes that support this ability. Here we examined whether an episodic specificity induction – brief training in recollecting details of a recent experience that selectively impacts tasks that draw on episodic retrieval – 1) boosts alternative event generation and 2) changes one’s initial perceptions of negative future events. In Experiment 1, an episodic specificity induction significantly increased the number of alternative positive outcomes that participants generated to a series of standardized negative events, compared with a control induction not focused on episodic specificity. We also observed larger decreases in the perceived plausibility and negativity of the original events in the specificity condition, where participants generated more alternative outcomes, relative to the control condition. In Experiment 2, we replicated and extended these findings using a series of personalized negative events. Our findings support the idea that episodic memory processes are involved in generating alternative outcomes to anticipated future events, and that boosting the number of alternative outcomes is related to subsequent changes in the perceived plausibility and valence of the original events, which may have implications for psychological well-being.

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“…The ability to recall specific AM is important in adaptive functioning and is implicated in a wide range of psychological processes such as planning, emotional regulation, and self‐identity (Bluck, Alea, Habermas, & Rubin, ). The association between psychopathology and the retrieval of specific AM has been widely researched, and a range of psychological disorders have been found to be associated with a reduced ability to recall specific AM, including major depression, post‐traumatic stress disorder (Moradi et al, ; Williams et al, ), anorexia nervosa (Bomba et al, ), and schizophrenia‐spectrum disorders (Berna et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity as a mediating factor between general anxiety symptoms and performance on problem‐solving tasks

Hallford

Noory

Mellor

2018

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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This study sought to further explain the association between general anxiety symptoms and impaired problem-solving by testing whether this occurs, in part, through a reduced ability to retrieve event-level, specific autobiographical memory (AM).Participants (N = 301; M age = 28.2 SD = 7.7, 55.8% female) completed assessments of the retrieval of specific AM, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and rumination. They then completed the Means-End Problem Solving Task, which assessed their ability to produce relevant problem-solving steps. Participants who were higher in anxiety reported a lesser number of relevant problem-solving steps, and this association was, in part, related to anxiety being associated with reduced AM specificity (after controlling for depressive symptoms). Rumination did not mediate anxiety and problem-solving, nor anxiety and AM specificity. These findings provide further evidence that elevated anxiety is associated with reduced ability to retrieve specific AM, and a specific cognitive pathway through which anxiety may affect problem-solving performance.

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A pilot randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of MEmory Specificity Training in improving symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder

Cited by 107 publications

References 18 publications

A comparison of MEmory Specificity Training (MEST) to education and support (ES) in the treatment of recurrent depression: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

A comparison of MEmory Specificity Training (MEST) to education and support (ES) in the treatment of recurrent depression: study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial

Preparing for what might happen: An episodic specificity induction impacts the generation of alternative future events

Reduced autobiographical memory specificity as a mediating factor between general anxiety symptoms and performance on problem‐solving tasks

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