Autobiographical Memory Remediation Therapy in Schizophrenia:
Results from an Exploratory Clinical Training
Sylvie Blairy 1 Aurore Neumann² Hilde Nachtergael3 Damien Lecompte3 & Pierre Philippot².
1 University of Liege, Department of Cognitive Sciences, Liege, Belgium. ²Catholique University of Louvain, Department ECSA, Louvain-la-Neuve,
Belgium, 3Free University of Brussels, Brugmann hospital, Department de Psychiatry,Brussels, Belgium; * Contact: sylvie.blairy@ulg.ac.be
Introduction
Autobiographical memory (ABM) relates to the capacity of people to recollect personal events from their lives. It is an inherent part of
personal identity and is strongly related to its development (Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2004). Schizophrenia is associated with a reduction of specific autobiographical memories, that is memories for a personal events, located in time and place and lasting no more than a day in
duration (Riutort et al., 2003; Neumann et al., in prep). This impairment is marked after the onset of the disease (Riutort et al., 2003), and consistent with the existence of an abnormal personal identity development in patients. The aim of the present therapy was to increase schizophrenia patients' capacities to recall specific personal life events.
Therapeutical goals :
Improve patient’s performance in the recall of specific personal memories, with help of keeping a diary Reinforcement of identity by working on the definition of the self.
Working on goals and objectives of life and development of projection capabilities in the future
Procedure:
Subjects:
Five schizophrenic patients (2 men, 3 women). Age between 23 and 50 years.
Discussion:
The results suggested that specific autobiographical memory of schizophrenia patients may be improved by cognitive
remediation therapy. Moreover, keeping a diary allowed these patients to stimulate the self-definition and personal aims in life. Long-term efficacy and training influence on the global functioning remain to be evaluated.
1st session:
- Psycho-education on cognitive problems in schizophrenia.
- Explication of the role of ABM (exercises)
- Working on motivation, starting from patient’s complaints.
Course:
Group therapy.
During 10 weeks with a ratio of one hour and a half a week. Taking an autobiographical memory test:
TeMA (Neumann & Philippot) during the first and last session.
Taking the TeMA (pretest)
2nd session:
- Learning to keep a diary
Dairy’s content:
Brief description of the
event
Where ? When ?
With who ?
What did I think? What did I feel?
Emotional intensity (0-10) Personal importance (0-10)
Content of the following sessions:
Training of conscious recollection of events reported in the dairy
Training of recall of events from previous weeks (indices).
Working on personal identity: how do I see myself and how do the others see me: Find 3 adjectives describing me best.
Report 3 specific memories for each adjective.
Find 3 adjectives describing the other people in the group.
Results:
Participants are able to recall more specific events after the training period t(3) = 9,00, p < .003.
Autobiographical memory. The ability to recall a specific life event was assessed using an autobiographical memory test TeMA (Neumann &
Philippot, in prep.). Participants were required to generate specific
personal events which could be located in time and place in responses to a word cues. Ten word cues, five positive and five negative were
presented. For each word cue, participants had one minute to provide a brief written report of a personal event. Specifically, participants were asked “Can you recall a personal event that the word…… could evoke?”
Measure:
Working on roles in life: Working on aims in life
Reflections on the strategies to adopt to achieve goals.
Define 3 roles and report a specific events for each of them
