Autobiographical memory impairments as a transdiagnostic feature of mental illness: A meta-analytic review of investigations into autobiographical memory specificity and overgenerality among people with psychiatric diagnoses.

Abstract

Decades of research has examined the difficulty that people with psychiatric diagnoses have in recalling specific autobiographical memories of events that lasted less than a day. Instead, they seem to retrieve general events that have occurred many times or which occurred over longer periods of time, termed overgeneral memory. We present the first transdiagnostic meta-analysis of memory specificity/overgenerality and the first meta-regression of proposed causal mechanisms. A keyword search of Embase, PsycARTICLES, and PsycINFO databases yielded 74 studies that compared people with and without psychiatric diagnoses on the retrieval of specific (k = 85) or general memories (k = 56). The majority of studies included participants with Major Depressive Disorder (∼49%), Schizophrenia (∼19%), and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (∼17%) with few studies involving other groups of participants, for example, Anxiety Disorders (∼5%). Multilevel meta-analysis confirmed that people with psychiatric diagnoses typically recall fewer specific, g = −0.864, 95% CI [−1.030, −0.698], and more general, g = 712, 95% CI [0.524, 0.900], memories than diagnoses-free people. The size of these effects did not differ between diagnostic groups. There were no consistent moderators of effect size heterogeneity; effect sizes were not explained by methodological factors such as cue valence or demographic variables such as participants' age or between-group differences in process variables (e.g., rumination). Deficits in autobiographical memory retrieval may be a transdiagnostic factor, but further research in underrepresented diagnostic groups, and with novel experimental manipulations of encoding and retrieval processes, is warranted before full transdiagnosticity and the processes underlying reduced specificity/overgenerality can be established. Public Significance StatementThe data presented here show that people with a range of psychiatric diagnoses experience difficulty retrieving memories of specific autobiographical events from their past. Instead, people with diagnoses tend to retrieve memories of general events that have occurred on multiple occasions or which occur over an extended period of time. These findings indicate a specific cognitive target for intervention in psychiatric problems, especially given that existing treatments do not typically help people in this way. These findings also contribute to a growing body of literature that indicates similarities in cognitive deficits that cut across discrete psychiatric diagnoses.

Trauma and Remembering: From Neuronal Circuits to Molecules

“…From our perspective, it is critical how patients with PTSD learn and remember. A vast amount of research shows that individuals with PTSD are susceptible to fear learning (aversive associative conditioning), overgeneralization of fear memories to neutral contexts (e.g., expecting an explosion of a bomb in a peaceful village), and lessened extinction (diminishing of aversive memories during repetitions over time without negative consequences) [16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…However, they often report poor attention, inability to remember specific details of events (dissociative amnesia), and inefficient learning related to latent avoidance [21][22][23]. Fighting with intrusive memories, rumination, internal avoidance, and impaired attentional control leads to reduced autobiographical memory specificity: the discrete time, location, and distinctive emotional/social characteristics of internal representations of places, people, and events are diminished [17,24]. Multiple mechanisms may contribute to decreased autobiographic memory specificity, including rumination, functional avoidance, and executive dysfunctions.…”

A systematic review of the pharmacological modulation of autobiographical memory specificity

“…Much of the interest in AM has focused on the (deficits in) retrieval of specific AMs (i.e., spatiotemporally unique memories of personally experienced events). Although particularly well-characterized in depressive (Williams et al, 2007 ) and traumatic stress disorders (Moore and Zoellner, 2007 ; Ono et al, 2016 ), reduced retrieval of specific AMs, otherwise known as overgeneral AM, is found in a range of psychological disorders (e.g., Jones et al, 1999 ; Berna et al, 2016 ; Barry et al, 2021 ). In sufferers of depression, for example, maladaptive processing of memories for personal experiences and self-related knowledge may include overgeneral AM, reduced recollection of positive AM, and enhanced (repetitive and involuntary) access to negative self-representations and AMs (Dalgleish and Werner-Seidler, 2014 ).…”

“…Overgeneral AM has consistently been associated with depression, PTSD, acute stress disorder, and other psychological disorders (Moore and Zoellner, 2007 ; Williams et al, 2007 ; Barry et al, 2021 ). Overgeneral AM has been found to lessen following natural remission or successful psychological treatment (Sutherland and Bryant, 2007 ; Ahern and Semkovska, 2017 ), suggesting that reduced specific AM retrieval may represent a state marker of psychological disorder.…”

The sharing of autobiographical memories elicits social support

“…Difficulty recalling specific autobiographical events from one's past has been associated with a range of different psychiatric diagnoses (Barry et al, 2021). Specific autobiographical memories refer to temporally discrete events (e.g., I was happy when playing football my child last Saturday; Williams et al, 2007;Williams & Broadbent, 1986).…”