Transcript Introduction

PAST AND FUTURE EVENTS SPECIFICITY
IN BIPOLAR DISORDERS
Marie Boulanger, Aurélie Lejeune & Sylvie Blairy
University of Liege, Belgium
INTRODUCTION
Bipolar disorder (BD) is accompanied by deficit in autobiographical memories (AM) (Scott & al., 2000; Mansell & Lam, 2004). In others words when these
patients are instructed to recall a specific event distinctly located in time and place (e.g. The day where I failed my chemistry test in June) they recall an
extended event (e.g. When I was University) or a category of repeated events (e.g. When I went to the cinema). Previous research showed that impairments
in the recollection of specific past event are correlated to difficulties to generate specific future events in schizophrenia patients
Linden, 2008; Neumann, Blairy, Lecompte, Nachtergael and Philippot (unpublished)
(D’Argembeau, Raffard and Van-der-
.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present study was investigated the impairments in AM as well as the ability to generate specific future events in patients suffering from
bipolar disorder.
METHOD
Dependant measures
Participants
A validated French versions (Neumann & Philippot, unpublished manuscript) of the AMT (Williams &
19 patients fulfilled the DSM-IV
criteria for bipolar disorder
(bipolar I or bipolar II).
19 healthy subjectsnever had to
present one or many depressive
episode, manic episode or,
hypomanic episode.
Broadbent, 1986).
• A past version: participants were asked to retrieve specific personal events in
response to ten cue words.
• A future version: participants were asked to generate specific personal events that
could occur to them in the future in response to ten cue words.
RESULTS
For each task, past and future, a mixed design 2(group) x 3(memory type) ANOVA was conducted to the number of generated
events:
Past Events Retrieve
For the past task: a significant group by memory interaction emerged
(F(2,72) = 4.7; p=.012) which indicates that the patients with BD
recollected less specific events and more overgeneral events than controls
(respectively, t(36) = 2,37; p=.029; t(36) = 2.31; p=.026)
(see table 1)
7
6
5
4
BD
3
Control
2
1
0
Omissions
general
specific
Table 1. Mean specificity to past version TeMA
For the future task: a significant group by memory interaction emerged
(F(2,72) = 8.79; p<.001) which indicates that the patients with BD
were less specific and more overgeneral than controls when
they project into the future (respectively, t(36) = 3.96; p<.001; t(36) = 2.78; p= .008)
(see table 2).
Future Events Retrieve
6
5
4
BD
3
Control
2
Furthermore, the numbers of specific past and specific future events are
correlated in group control (ρ=.60).
1
0
Omissions
general
specific
Table 2. Mean specificity to future version TeMA
DISCUSSION
To our knowledge, the present study is the first one to investigate the ability to generate past as well as specific future events in patients with bipolar
disorders. The results are in line with the results of Scott & al., (2000) and Mansell & Lam (2004) and the results of previous studies with patients having an
emotional disorders that is: AM performance in patients with BD is effectively impaired in comparison to healthy individuals for past as well as future events.
The reduced capacities to generate personal specific life events is particularly clinically relevant. Indeed, according to Williams et al. (1996), difficulty in
imagining the future may contribute to impairments in problem solving and to suicidal behaviors. Regarding the important role that plays the inability to
imagine the future in suicidal ideations, more systematic measure of this ability should be taken in both research and clinical fields.
*Correspondence to adress to Marie Boulanger,
Departement of Cognitive Science, University of Liège,
Boulevard du Rectorat 3 (B33), 4000 Liège, Belgium.
E-mail: [email protected]
D’Argembeau, A., Raffard, S., & Van der Linden, M. (2008). Remembering the past and imagining the future in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 117(1), 247-251. Mansell, W., & Lam, D. (2004). A preliminary study of autobiographical memory in remitted bipolar and unipolar depression
and the role of imagery in the specificity of memory. Memory, 12(4), 437-446.Neumann, A., & Philippot, P. (unpublished). Tâche d’Evaluation de la Mémoire
Autobiographique : TeMA. Validation française de l’Autobiographical Memory Test. Neumann, Blairy, Lecompte, Nachtergael and Philippot (unpublished).
Reduced specificity of autobiographical memory and personal projection in the future in schizophrenia. Scott, J., Stanton, B., Garland, A., & Ferrier, I.N.
(2000). Cognitive vulnerability in patients with bipolar disorders. Psychological Medicine, 30, 467-472. Williams, Ellis, Tyers, Healy, Rose and MacLeod
(1996). Yhe specificity of autobiographical memory and imageability of the future. Memory and cognition, 24, 116-125.