Overgeneralized autobiographical memory and future thinking in combat veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.

BACKGROUND: Studies show that individuals with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) tend to recall autobiographical memories with decreased episodic specificity. A growing body of research has demonstrated that the mechanisms involved in recalling autobiographical memories overlap considerably with those involved in imagining the future. Although shared autobiographical deficits in remembering the past and imagining the future have been observed in other clinical populations, this has yet to be examined in PTSD. This study examined whether, compared to combat trauma-exposed individuals without PTSD, those with combat-related PTSD would be more likely to generate overgeneralized autobiographical memories and imagined future events.

METHOD: Operation Enduring/Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans with and without PTSD were presented with neutral word cues and were instructed to generate memories or imagine future autobiographical events. Responses were digitally recorded and were coded for level of episodic specificity and content related to combat trauma.

RESULTS: Individuals with PTSD were more likely to generate overgeneral autobiographical memories and future events than individuals without PTSD, and were more likely to incorporate content associated with combat when remembering the past or thinking about the future.

LIMITATION: Limitations of the study include a cross-sectional design, precluding causality; the lack of a non-trauma exposed group, relatively small sample, and almost all-male gender of participants, limiting the generalizability to other populations.

CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that individuals with PTSD show similar deficits when generating personal past and future events, which may represent a previously unexamined mechanism involved in the maintenance of PTSD symptoms.