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Self‐defining memories in female patients with anorexia nervosa
Author(s) -
Castellon Pascaline,
Sudres JeanLuc,
Voltzenlogel Virginie
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
european eating disorders review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.511
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1099-0968
pISSN - 1072-4133
DOI - 10.1002/erv.2739
Subject(s) - anorexia nervosa , psychology , autobiographical memory , recall , context (archaeology) , expressive suppression , eating disorders , clinical psychology , narrative , bulimia nervosa , cognition , developmental psychology , cognitive reappraisal , psychiatry , cognitive psychology , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , biology
Objective Overgeneral autobiographical memory (AM) was reported in patients with anorexia nervosa (AN) using AM cueing tasks that did not directly indexes memories that are personally important to the individual, that is, self‐defining memories (SDMs). The aim of this study is to investigate characteristics of SDMs in females with AN. Method A total of 46 outpatients with chronic AN and 52 healthy controls (HC) were asked to recall three SDMs. Results Compared to HC, patients with AN presented less specific SDMs, but have preserved ability to give meaning to their memories. Patients' SDMs were associated with more negative emotions, more tension (i.e. explicit expression of discomfort, disagreement or unease) and more contamination (i.e. transformation in the memory narrative from a positive to a negative affective state). Content of SDMs differed between patients with AN and HC. Finally, no difference was found in SDMs characteristics between the two subtypes of anorexia nervosa (restricting type and binge eating / purging type). Discussion Patients with AN recalled overgeneral SDMs with negative content and emotions. In this context, a clinical intervention based on SDMs together with cognitive and emotional remedial therapies could help patients with AN to improve emotion processing and redefine their identity in a more positive way.