title: Measuring consistency of autobiographical memory recall in depression.
abstract: Autobiographical amnesia assessments in depression need to account for normal changes in consistency over time, contribution of mood and type of memories measured. We report herein validation studies of the Columbia Autobiographical Memory Interview - Short Form (CAMI-SF), exclusively used in depressed patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) but without previous published report of normative data. The CAMI-SF was administered twice with a 6-month interval to 44 healthy volunteers to obtain normative data for retrieval consistency of its Semantic, Episodic-Extended and Episodic-Specific components and assess their reliability and validity. Healthy volunteers showed significant large decreases in retrieval consistency on all components. The Semantic and Episodic-Specific components demonstrated substantial construct validity. We then assessed CAMI-SF retrieval consistencies over a 2-month interval in 30 severely depressed patients never treated with ECT compared with healthy controls (n=19). On initial assessment, depressed patients produced less episodic-specific memories than controls. Both groups showed equivalent amounts of consistency loss over a 2-month interval on all components. At reassessment, only patients with persisting depressive symptoms were distinguishable from controls on episodic-specific memories retrieved. Research quantifying retrograde amnesia following ECT for depression needs to control for normal loss in consistency over time and contribution of persisting depressive symptoms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. semkovsm@tcd.ie
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Semkovska
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Noone
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Carton
authors.forename: Declan M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: McLoughlin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology*; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D055815:Young Adult