Autobiographical memory specificity across life periods in people with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVE: Because the well-known relationship between autobiographical memory (AM) with social functioning and psychopathology can manifest itself in a different way for memories of different life periods, the current work assesses AM specificity deficits across different life stages in people with schizophrenia.

METHOD: This cross-sectional study compares the performance of specific AM in people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (n = 53, 78% male, 39.03 mean age) and controls ( n = 69, 88% male, 36.65 mean age) for four life periods (childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, and the year preceding the assessment) using the Autobiographical Memory Enquiry.

RESULTS: The results revealed worse AM performance in people with schizophrenia, especially for memory of events occurring over the preceding year, and the use of overgeneral memory style for life periods succeeding childhood.

CONCLUSION: These results highlight the need for systematic assessment of difficulties in retrieving specific memories across life periods in people with schizophrenia.