A Paradox?
It is well established that severely depressed patients have deficits in their autobiographical memory - their memories are 'overgeneral' and lacking in any detail.
Studies suggest that severely depressed patients tend to ruminate on memories of misfortunes in their lives. But if severely depressed people cannot remember the past in any great detail, how can they ruminate with any great detail on only their misfortunes?
Is the answer that rumination is more likely to be found in mild/moderate cases than in the more severe forms of depression?
Thanks Steve,
I think that not all depressed patients ruminate on past negative experiences - most ruminate on their present condition. Am I right about this?
Anyone have some literature sources on this. aka 1. Depressed people do not recall autobiographical information with accuracy 2. Rumination being both of past and present. I realize these may be obvious clinically, just wondering if there are any studies anyone is aware of (before I take the time to do a lit search, call me busy or lazy :-)
Because they ruminate, they repeat. Repetition is a well known learning/memory factor. So is also agency, i.e. you remember situations/perceptions that you were actively involved in, especially if they were emotionell. It is thus a combination of arousal/attentional resources and agency.
Anecdotal evidence (someone interested in a joint real study next year?):
golfers with a relatively low handicap remember 80-100% of their shots in their last round. As a member of a veteran team I have checked this, and I never use an app myself in order to write down all my shots from the last round. Agency is not the only factor here, spatial memory may be equally important. It should be interesting to see if golfers who tend to be miserable after a score above their standard show any impairment regarding their memory for individual shots.
Theresa Chinnerys comment regering depression vs autobiographical memory is interesting.
okay, a brief google search found a lot of info on autobiographical memory in depression e.g. http://www.oxfordmindfulness.org/wp-content/uploads/Williams-et-al-2000-OGM-in-MBCT.pdf
and this paper (link above) may go a little way toward your question Anthony
Thanks Theresa but I know all about this and have my own theory of the role of autobiographical memory in severe depression published. My article goes on to explain the role of autobiographical memory in severe depression and how ECT may help patients regain access to their autobiographical memories:
Electroconvulsive therapy: a theory for the mechanism of action
AT Frais - The journal of ECT, 2010 26 60-61
http://www.carrierclinic.org/informationcenter/ElectroconvulsiveTherapy.pdf
However, and with respect to you, all this does not answer my original question.
I am interested to read your paper Anthony. thank you for providing it, sorry about the momentary segue into already charted waters for you.
Depression is a negative aspect on: self, world and others. under this sense, there is not any inability to recall, it simply does not fix the above principle.
Utilizing EEG actuarials all of my patients who suffer from depression from MDD to neurotic forms show greater right hemispheric competence on neuropsychological screening assessment. Up to 80% also show clear evidence of OCD on actuarial personality assessment giving rise to a tendency to ruminate which is dysphorically directed by the right hemispheric strength.
I often wonder, in my work with depressed clients, some of whom, have also survived ABI, if the unsolved nature of their ruminations, make them memorable. An example of the Zeigarnik Effect that hypothesized that unsolved problems use cognitive resources. I think that is why CBT is effective in breaking this loop by re-framing the negative experience in a different way, thus solving the problem and allowing the client to move forward in therapy.
The problem seems to be that the working memory is unable to get rid of irrelevant negative information.
De Raedt, R. & Koster, E.H.W. (2010). Understanding vulnerability for
depression from a cognitive neuroscience perspective: a reappraisal of
attentional factors and a new conceptual framework.
Cognitive, Affectiveand Behavioural Neuroscience
, 10, 50-70
Hi all,
This study suggests that severely depressed people lack detail when ruminating on memories of past failures.
Personality and Individual Differences
Volume 43, Issue 6, October 2007, Pages 1386–1395
Reduced concreteness of rumination in depression: A pilot study
Ed Watkinsa,
Michelle L. Mouldsb, ,
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