Selective memory for sensory and affective information in chronic pain and depression

Abstract

Mood congruity effects in induced mood states and affective disorders are well established. Recent evidence suggests that a similar process occurs in chronic pain patients, although the extent to which the memory bias is a consequence of the affective or sensory state of the subject in this group is unknown. In this study selective memory for sensory and affective pain-related information was investigated in depressed and non-depressed chronic pain patients and depressed psychiatric patients. A recall test comprising sensory, affective and neutral adjectives matched for frequency was followed by a recognition task, where the words of the recall test were randomized with an equal number of new adjectives matched for word type and frequency. Comparison of the three patient groups with normal controls revealed specific recall biases directly related to pain and depression in both chronic pain groups and the controls. Contrary to expectations, the depressed psychiatric patients failed to show a recall bias for affective adjectives: the possibility of cognitive avoidance as an explanation for this is discussed. Signal detection analysis of the recognition results suggested that selective memory in chronic pain and depression may to some extent be accounted for by differences in 'true memory', the contribution of response bias remaining less clear.

Depression and Next-day Spillover of Negative Mood and Depressive Cognitions Following Interpersonal Stress

“…Using this approach, researchers have the ability to model not only initial change in symptoms when a stressor occurs, but also the extent to which negative reactions linger into subsequent assessment periods. Daily process designs also minimize retrospective recall bias in the measurement of stress and symptoms, which is important in depressed populations where negative recall biases might be particularly strong (Edwards, Pearce, Collett, & Pugh 1992).…”

Roles of the hippocampal formation in pain information processing

“…On the other hand, painrelated memory bias has also been frequently reported in patients with somatic pain disorders [264][265][266] . Nevertheless, whether pain-induced plastic changes in the HF contribute to these clinical symptoms remain less characterized.…”

When pain remains: Appraisals and adaptation

“…Defensive coping is rarely studied in pain patients today, although it is more vividly discussed in studies of other somatic conditions (Vos & de Haes, 2007). When defensive concepts such as cognitive avoidance are described in the pain literature, they are often used to explain an unforeseen failure to find a memory bias (Asmundson et al, 1997;Edwards, 1992). Unfortunately, this also holds true for Study II.…”

“…In experimental settings, memory bias is frequently assessed by measuring recall of verbal material. Pain patients are found to recall more pain-related words compared to pain-free controls (Edwards et al, 1992;Pearce et al, 1990), a tendency that becomes more evident as the material is encoded in reference to the self (Pincus et al, 1993). However, pain experiences are often difficult to verbalise and words may only capture a small proportion of the patient's whole experience.…”

“…Another explanation is that patients do not attend to pain-related information more than neutral information, but that they have greater difficulty disengaging from such information once it has come into focus (Roelofs, Peters & Vlaeyen, 2002). Recall bias is frequently assessed by measuring recall or recognition of verbal material, and within this paradigm chronic pain patients are found to recall more pain-related adjectives than do pain-free controls (Edwards, Pearce, Collett, & Pugh, 1992;Pearce, Isherwood, Hrouda, Richardson, Erskine, & Skinner, 1990).…”