Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy reduces overgeneral autobiographical memory in formerly depressed patients

Previous research on depressed and suicidal patients and those with posttra umatic stress disorder has shown that patients' memory for the past is over general (i.e., patients retrieve generic summaries of past events rather th an specific events). This study investigated whether autobiographical memor y could he affected by psychological treatment. Recovered depressed patient s were randomly allocated to receive either treatment as usual or treatment designed to reduce risk of relapse. Whereas control patients showed no cha nge in specificity of memories recalled in response to cue words, the treat ment group showed a significantly reduced number of generic memories. Altho ugh such a memory deficit may arise from long-standing tendencies to encode and retrieve events generically, such a style is open to modification.