Autobiographical memory and parasuicide in borderline personality disorder.
Several studies have found that parasuicidal patients are poor at recalling specific autobiographical memories when tested with the word-cueing paradigm and two studies have reported some evidence that over-general recall is a risk factor for repetition of parasuicide. The aim of the present study was to test whether this association could be replicated with a sample of patients suffering from borderline personality disorder (BPD).



Twenty-three patients with BPD completed a version of the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) and self-report measures of depression, anxiety and trait anger. In a structured interview, they also reported the number of times they had engaged in parasuicidal acts during the previous 4 months.



The number of general memories produced on the AMT made a significant contribution to the prediction of the frequency of parasuicidal acts in a multiple regression analysis but the partial correlation in the final equation was negative. That is, those who showed greatest over-general recall reported fewest parasuicidal acts. Anxiety and depression, but not trait anger, also made significant independent contributions to the prediction of parasuicide.



Over-general autobiographical recall may help to protect borderline individuals from parasuicidal acts by helping them to avoid distressing memories.
Startup
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M
School of Psychology, University of Wales, Bangor, Gwynedd LL57 2DG, UK. m.j.startup@bangor.ac.uk
Heard
H
H
Swales
M
M
Jones
B
B
Williams
J M
JM
Jones
R S
RS
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger; D001325:Autobiographies as Topic; D001883:Borderline Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D003463:Cues; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D016728:Self-Injurious Behavior; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology; D014825:Vocabulary