Memory Specificity Training for Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Promising Therapeutic Intervention

Erten, Mina N.

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00419

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Additionally, future research should examine the potential benefits of addressing future-oriented cognitions in chronic pain as a treatment adjunct for individuals presenting with anxiety or depression comorbid with chronic pain. Furthermore, given the findings that OGM is a risk factor for the onset and course of depression ( Williams et al, 2007 ; Sumner et al, 2010 ), treatments that target memory specificity and future thinking ( Erten and Brown, 2018 ) should be investigated as an early intervention for those with chronic pain in order to reduce the risk of developing a concurrent mood disorder.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autobiographical Memory and Future Thinking Specificity and Content in Chronic Pain

et al. 2021

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Chronic pain is associated with high levels of mental health issues and alterations in cognitive processing. Cognitive-behavioral models illustrate the role of memory alterations (e.g., autobiographical memory and future thinking) in the development and maintenance of chronic pain as well as in mental health disorders which frequently co-occur with chronic pain (e.g., anxiety and mood disorders). This study aims to expand our understanding of specific cognitive mechanisms underlying chronic pain which may in turn shed light on cognitive processes underlying pain-related psychological distress. Individuals (N = 84) who reported a history of chronic pain and individuals who reported no history of chronic pain (N = 102) were recruited from MTurk to complete an online survey including standardized measures of anxiety and depression and two sentence completion tasks that assessed autobiographical memory and future thinking specificity and content. Chi square analyses revealed that participants who endorsed experiencing chronic pain were significantly more likely to recall at least one painful and negative event and to imagine at least one anticipated painful event in their future. Two ANCOVAs were performed to examine the degree to which chronic pain endorsement influenced specificity in memory and future imagining. Individuals with a history of chronic pain and higher levels of depression symptom severity generated autobiographical memories with significantly less specificity; whereas, individuals with a history of chronic pain also generated future autobiographical events with significantly less specificity. In addition, individuals with a history of chronic pain were more likely to generate episodes related to pain when asked to recall the past or imagine the future. Further research is needed to improve our understanding of the etiology of autobiographical memory and future thinking specificity and content in the pathogenesis of mental health conditions in the context of chronic pain.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autobiographical Memory and Future Thinking Specificity and Content in Chronic Pain

et al. 2021

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“…Yet in most previous studies AR patients found it difficult to recall specific memories with both positive and negative cues [16,18,19], even though one study demonstrated no difference between AN patients and an NC sample in the recall of positive content in an autobiographical task [48]. This divergence may be partly due to the different clinical characteristics of the samples such as BMI, illness duration [48] and involvement in a psychotherapy, which is known to influence the specificity of recall [49].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…In other populations of patients in which AM recall deficits were observed, such as depressive patients, memory specificity training has been shown to positively impact the specificity of AM recall as well as emotional and cognitive factors involved in both depression and AM deficits, such as rumination or emotional avoidance [55][56][57]. Programs such as the MEST (memory specificity training) or the MEMFlex have shown significant results in depressive inpatients [55,57], in adolescents with depressive symptoms and aversive experiences [56] and in veterans with post-traumatic stress symptoms [58]. These results open up new therapeutical perspectives in the treatment of AN patients [57].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Specificity and wealth of autobiographical memories in restrictive and mixed anorexic patients

et al. 2021

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The reduced specificity of positive and negative autobiographical memories observed in anorexic (AN) patients may reflect a global disturbance in their emotional information processing. However, their emotional difficulties may differ according to the subtype of AN, implying possible differences in the manifestation of autobiographical memory impairments. The aims of the study were (1) to confirm the autobiographical memory deficits in AN patients in terms of specificity and wealth of memories, and (2) to compare autobiographical deficits according to the AN subtype: restrictive type (AR) or binge/purging type (AB). Ninety-five non-clinical (NC) individuals and 95 AN patients including 69 AR and 22 AB patients were administered the Williams’ and Scott’s Autobiographical Memory Test. The results confirmed a lack of specificity regardless of emotional valence in the overall AN patient group without any distinction of subtype, which was linked to the number of hospitalizations. When the AN subtype was considered, AR patients demonstrated reduced specificity for negative memories only, suggesting differences in emotional functioning or in the mechanisms underlying reduced specificity between AR and AB patients. Furthermore, the overall AN group demonstrated lower variability and complexity in their memory content than the NC group. However, this difference in the complexity of recalled memories was only found in response to negative cues. When AN subtypes were considered, AR patients showed fewer complex memories than NC individuals. Beyond a reduced specificity, AN patients also depict a poverty in the range of event recall and a difficulty in developing narrative content. The clinical implications of such autobiographical memory deficits need to be further investigated.

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“…In particular, future studies should investigate the role of the future-self in PTSD. Given the close relations between MTT and self-identity, therapeutic approaches that target MTT and self-narrative, such as imagery rescripting (Brockman and Calvert, 2017 ), metacognition (Davis et al, 2016 ), self-efficacy enhancement (Cusack et al, 2019 ), and specificity training for memory and prospection (Erten and Brown, 2018 ) may represent interventions and should be further tested in clinical PTSD populations.…”

Section: Discussion and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Memory Specificity Training for Depression and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Promising Therapeutic Intervention

Cited by 13 publications

References 39 publications

Autobiographical Memory and Future Thinking Specificity and Content in Chronic Pain

Autobiographical Memory and Future Thinking Specificity and Content in Chronic Pain

Specificity and wealth of autobiographical memories in restrictive and mixed anorexic patients

Mental Time Travel in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Current Gaps and Future Directions

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