Abstract
We examined whether major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a tendency to recall more remote, specific autobiographical memories, particularly in the context of positive memories. To this end, individuals with MDD (n = 26) and healthy controls (n = 54) completed the Autobiographical Memory Test. Consistent with the hypothesis, remoteness of specific memories in the MDD group, but not the control group, depended on valence. Compared to the control group, the MDD group recalled more remote positive events. Additionally, the MDD group’s positive specific memories were significantly more remote than their negative specific memories. Retrieving remote positive memories might impair mood regulation and maintain an individual’s negative mood and perpetuate depression.
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Notes
We used advertisements looking for individuals with either depression or SAD for multiple unrelated studies conducted in the lab. Thus, individuals with SAD, MDD, or both responded to the ads and were included in the current study if they met diagnosis for MDD. Our recruitment strategy could have artificially increased the comorbidity rate in our sample.
Participants completed other questionnaires assessing personality traits (e.g., NEO), but no other symptom questionnaire was included in this study.
We also analyzed the data including extended memories considering that we could determine the remoteness of extended memories. However, extended memories whose length qualified them for more than one category according to the remoteness coding scheme (e.g., “when I was unemployed from last year to two days ago”) were treated as missing data. Including extended memories yielded virtually identical results as the findings reported in the “Results” section.
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Dahyeon Kim, Lira Yoon, and Jutta Joormann declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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Kim, D., Yoon, K.L. & Joormann, J. Remoteness and Valence of Autobiographical Memory in Depression. Cogn Ther Res 42, 230–235 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9881-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9881-6