The organization of autobiographical and nonautobiographical memory in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Disorganized trauma memory seems to play an important role in the pathogenesis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, it is unclear whether memory organization of nonautobiographical material (i.e., sequence memory) is also impaired in PTSD. A novel task designed to assess nonautobiographical memory for content and order information was administered to trauma survivors with (n = 26) and without PTSD (n = 55) as well as to nontraumatized healthy adults (n = 30). In addition, traumatized participants were asked to give a detailed narrative of the traumatic event and an unpleasant autobiographical event. Transcripts of both types of narratives were analyzed with regard to disorganization. Results indicated that trauma memories were more disorganized than memories of an unpleasant event in the PTSD group in comparison with the non-PTSD group. However, no differences were found for memory organization of nonautobiographical material among trauma survivors with and without PTSD and nontraumatized controls. With regard to memory accuracy of nonautobiographical material, group differences were more strongly associated with trauma exposure than with PTSD.
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 20246 Hamburg, Germany. l.jelinek@uke.uni-hamburg.de
Lena
L
Jelinek
Sarah
S
Randjbar
Dragana
D
Seifert
Michael
M
Kellner
Steffen
S
Moritz
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001325:Autobiographies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires