Autobiographical memory style in seasonal affective disorder and its relationship to future symptom remission

Autobiographical memory was examined in participants with seasonal affectiv e disorder (SAD). In Experiment 1, participants with SAD performed an autob iographical memory task (AMT) in the winter, when depressed, The AMT requir ed participants to generate autobiographical memories to positive and negat ive cue words. Symptom levels were reassessed in the summer, when participa nts were remitted. The number of overly general memories to positive cues g enerated when the SAD participants were depressed predicted symptom levels when remitted, over and above initial symptom levels, with greater winter o vergenerality being associated with high levels of summer symptoms. However , this was dependent on the exact measure of depressive symptoms used. The degree of overgenerality of memories in SAD participants was further invest igated in Experiment 2. Results revealed that SAD participants did not show elevated recall of overgeneral memories relative to controls. The results as a whole indicate that, even when levels of general memories are no great er in a given target group than in controls, the absolute level of general memories to positive cue words is still independently related to symptom ou tcome.