Current PTSD symptomatology distorts memory for past symptoms

Abstract

Clinicians often rely on clients' retrospective reports of past symptoms to diagnose and treat Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, there is limited research investigating memory for past PTSD symptoms. We asked sexual assault survivors to report their PTSD symptoms and then recall them 6 months later. Overall, symptom recall was consistent with initial reports. However, after dividing participants into PTSD-positive and negative groups, we found that people who were PTSD-negative at follow-up underestimated past PTSD symptom severity while people who were PTSD-positive overestimated past symptoms. For example, 2.8% of PTSD-negative participants versus 15.9% of PTSD-positive participants recalled experiencing 20+ more points on the PCL-5 at follow-up than at initial assessment. Further, people who adjusted over time greatly underestimated past symptoms unlike those who remained PTSD-positive. Our findings have important theoretical and clinical implications because they show that current symptom severity may influence the memory reconstruction of prior levels of adjustment.

Fading affect bias in Mexico: Differential fading of emotional intensity in death memories and everyday negative memories

“…In addition, longitudinal research investigating the reporting of PTSD symptoms indicate that individuals with those symptoms may overinflate past symptom experiences in alignment with current symptoms. While these findings are in line with the FAB identified in the current study, and demonstrate that FAB may reflect more general biases related to symptom appraisal, they also highlight the limitations of cross‐sectional research in this area, and warrant consideration in this context (Nahleen et al, 2019).…”

The memory-experience gap for PTSD symptoms: The correspondence between experience sampling and past month retrospective reports of traumatic stress symptoms

“…Furthermore, the findings suggest that retrospective assessments of PTSD symptoms will generally not be affected by severity or recency bias. It is important to highlight that we should not assume that accurate recall is necessarily a positive thing; it has been proposed that forgetting or underreporting the severity of previously experienced symptoms may be an adaptive adjustment mechanism that comes as part of a recovery process (Levine et al, 2009;Nahleen et al, 2019), something that could be examined in future studies.…”

“…The lack of consistency between experiences and their subsequent recall, or recall bias, has been termed the 'memory-experience gap' (Miron-Shatz et al, 2009). Trauma-related symptoms, including PTSD, may be especially susceptible to memory recall and retrieval difficulties (Harvey and Bryant, 2000;Nahleen et al, 2019). This raises the question whether asking individuals to recall symptoms over the past month is a reliable way to assess for PTSD in the first place.…”

“…These include a tendency to recall the worst experiences of the period (i.e., severity bias), or their most recent experiences (i.e., recency bias; Schneider and Stone, 2016;Shiffman et al, 2008). Second, recall of psychological symptoms as well as content can be related to that individual's current mood (Levine et al, 2009;Nahleen et al, 2019), consistent with the mood-congruency theory (Bower, 1981). Finally, mental symptoms, including PTSD symptoms can be variable from one day to the next (Naragon-Gainey et al, 2012;Black et al 2018), which could increase severity and recency effects.…”

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Cognitive Fucntioning: A Literature Review

“…Particularly impaired in veterans and auditory stimuli 15,21) The importance of emotional context 19,20) Increased attention to threat-related stimuli [22][23][24][25] Difficulty in inhibitory response from distracter 26) Memory Lack of consistency in memory loss 11,15,27) Relatively consistent impairment in language memory 27) Differences by type of trauma [27][28][29] Negative effect on episodic memory [30][31][32][33] Change of existing memory/formation of negative memory [34][35][36][37] Difficulty in memory suppression 38,39) Learning Lack of consistency in learning ability loss 11,15,18) Impaired in language learning and veterans/elderly 11,15,40) Executive function Impairment of executive function 11,15,41,42) Influence independent of depression 42) Visuospatial function Relatively small effect 11,15) Relevance to abused children 29,43) 억보다…”