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Autobiographical Memory Impairment in Female Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

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Abstract

Although the health consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV) have been amply described, as of yet, no study has focused on autobiographical memory (AM), despite the fact that AM dysfunction has been shown to have an impact on everyday life. We assessed AM using a cue-word task in 25 female victims of IPV and 22 control women who had never been exposed to a traumatic event. The IPV group also completed measures of psychotraumatic symptoms. AM was impaired in the IPV victims. When the effect of cue-word valence was analyzed, decreased AM specificity was observed with negative cue-words. This exploratory study demonstrates AM dysfunction among female victims of IPV for the first time. The pattern is consistent with the AM impairment observed in victims of traumatic events.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Purpan-Casselardit Hospital, Toulouse University Hospital, France (fellowship to S.B.).

We thank Yvette Rougé for helping with the recruitment and Nina Crowte for English language support. We are also grateful to all the participants of our study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Toulouse Neuroimaging Center (UMR 1214), University of Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier, Inserm, Toulouse, France and Purpan Hospital, Toulouse University Hospital, Toulouse, France

    Sophie Billoux & Christophe Arbus

  2. Forensic Medicine Department, Rangueil Hospital, Toulouse University Hospital, Toulouse, France

    Norbert Telmon

  3. CERPPS (EA 4156), Deparment of Psychology, University of Toulouse II – Jean Jaurès, 5 Allées Antonio Machado, 31058, Toulouse Cedex 9, France

    Virginie Voltzenlogel

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  1. Sophie Billoux
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  2. Christophe Arbus
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  3. Norbert Telmon
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  4. Virginie Voltzenlogel
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Correspondence to Virginie Voltzenlogel.

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All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all patients for being included in the study.

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All authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Billoux, S., Arbus, C., Telmon, N. et al. Autobiographical Memory Impairment in Female Victims of Intimate Partner Violence. J Fam Viol 31, 897–902 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9838-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-016-9838-7

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