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De samenhang tussen depressie, trauma en verminderde specificiteit van het autobiografisch geheugen

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Samenvatting

Depressieve patiënten en mensen die in hun verleden traumatische gebeurtenissen hebben meegemaakt, hebben moeite om specifieke autobiografische herinneringen op te halen. In vergelijking met niet-depressieve personen uit controlegroepen herinneren depressieve en getraumatiseerde personen zich meer overalgemene (bijvoorbeeld ‘Elke keer wanneer ik faal’) dan specifieke herinneringen (bijvoorbeeld ‘Die ene keer toen ik faalde bij mijn rijexamen’). Het fenomeen staat bekend als ‘overalgemeen geheugen’. In deze bijdrage geven we een overzicht van de literatuur over overalgemeen geheugen en de relatie met depressie en – in bijzonderheid – trauma. We gaan in op de oorsprong van dit geheugenfenomeen en lichten een ontwikkelingspsychopathologisch model toe waarin het geheel van onderzoeksresultaten omtrent trauma, depressie, en overalgemeen geheugen worden geïntegreerd. Afsluiten doen we door stil te staan bij de mogelijke klinische implicaties van de onderzoeksbevindingen in dit veld.

Abstract

Depressed patients as well as people with a history of trauma have profound difficulty retrieving specific autobiographical memories. As compared to non-depressed controls, depressed people and people with a trauma history recall relatively more overgeneral (e.g., ‘the times I fail’) rather than specific memories (e.g., ‘that one time when I failed my driving test’). This phenomenon is known as overgeneral memory. In this contribution, we offer a review of the literature on overgeneral memory and its association with depression and – in particular - trauma. We address the possible origin of this intriguing memory phenomenon as well as a developmental psychopathological model in which the research findings on trauma, depression, and overgeneral memory are integrated. At the close of this paper, we address the possible clinical implications of the research findings in this field.

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    Filip Raes

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  1. Filip Raes
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  2. Dirk Hermans
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  3. Paul Eelen
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Correspondence to Filip Raes.

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dr. f. raes is postdoctoraal onderzoeker van het Onderzoeksfonds K.U. Leuven. Alledrie de auteurs zijn (ook) verbonden aan het Centrum voor Leerpsychologie en Experimentele Psychopathologie, Departement Psychologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Correspondentieadres: Filip Raes, Departement Psychologie Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, 3000 Leuven, België.

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Raes, F., Hermans, D. & Eelen, P. De samenhang tussen depressie, trauma en verminderde specificiteit van het autobiografisch geheugen. DITH 26, 10–20 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03060405

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