Compromises of integration, specificity and emotional content of self-defining memories in patients with opioid-use disorder

Associations between positive memory count and hazardous substance use in a trauma-exposed sample: Examining the moderating role of emotion dysregulation

OBJECTIVES

Research has demonstrated links between autobiographical memory retrieval and hazardous substance use. However, limited work has examined relations between positive autobiographical memories and hazardous substance use, as well as moderating factors influencing these relations. Thus, we examined the potential moderating roles of negative and positive emotion dysregulation in the relations between count of retrieved positive memories and hazardous substance use (alcohol and drug use separately).

METHODS

Participants were 333 trauma-exposed students (Mage  = 21.05; 85.9% women) who completed self-report measures assessing positive memory count, hazardous alcohol and drug use, negative emotion dysregulation, and positive emotion dysregulation.

RESULTS

Positive emotion dysregulation significantly moderated the association between positive memory count and hazardous alcohol use (b = 0.04, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.01, 0.06], p = 0.019), as well as the association between positive memory count and hazardous drug use (b = 0.02, 95% CI [0.01, 0.03], p = 0.002). Individuals with more positive emotion dysregulation had stronger associations between increases in positive memory count and increased hazardous substance use.

CONCLUSION

Findings indicate that trauma-exposed individuals who retrieve more positive memories and experience difficulties regulating positive emotions report greater hazardous substance use. Positive emotion dysregulation may be an important target for memory-based interventions among trauma-exposed individuals who report hazardous substance use.

Specificity and wealth of autobiographical memories in restrictive and mixed anorexic patients

The reduced specificity of positive and negative autobiographical memories observed in anorexic (AN) patients may reflect a global disturbance in their emotional information processing. However, their emotional difficulties may differ according to the subtype of AN, implying possible differences in the manifestation of autobiographical memory impairments. The aims of the study were (1) to confirm the autobiographical memory deficits in AN patients in terms of specificity and wealth of memories, and (2) to compare autobiographical deficits according to the AN subtype: restrictive type (AR) or binge/purging type (AB). Ninety-five non-clinical (NC) individuals and 95 AN patients including 69 AR and 22 AB patients were administered the Williams' and Scott's Autobiographical Memory Test. The results confirmed a lack of specificity regardless of emotional valence in the overall AN patient group without any distinction of subtype, which was linked to the number of hospitalizations. When the AN subtype was considered, AR patients demonstrated reduced specificity for negative memories only, suggesting differences in emotional functioning or in the mechanisms underlying reduced specificity between AR and AB patients. Furthermore, the overall AN group demonstrated lower variability and complexity in their memory content than the NC group. However, this difference in the complexity of recalled memories was only found in response to negative cues. When AN subtypes were considered, AR patients showed fewer complex memories than NC individuals. Beyond a reduced specificity, AN patients also depict a poverty in the range of event recall and a difficulty in developing narrative content. The clinical implications of such autobiographical memory deficits need to be further investigated.

Characterisation of self-defining memories in criminals with antisocial personality disorder

Early aversive events are key factors in the development of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and are known to impact the ability to produce specific autobiographical memories and to modify self-construction. The present study assessed identity construction in forensic inpatients suffering from ASPD by comparing the characteristics (specificity, integration, valence, topic and period) of self-defining memories (SDM) of persons with ASPD hospitalised in a forensic hospital to those of control participants. Offenders with ASPD had difficulty in retrieving purely specific single events and tended to recall memories comprising multiple events. In addition, they produced significantly less meaning-making from their past experiences (low integration). These characteristics of SDM could be due to a defensive process used by offenders with ASPD in which they do not integrate aversive experiences, thereby creating a vicious circle where maladjustment of their personality is maintained.