Mapping autobiographical memory in schizophrenia: Clinical implications

- We review the components of autobiographical memory in schizophrenia.
- People with schizophrenia show overgeneral autobiographical memory.
- Trauma functional avoidance could be related with overgenerality in schizophrenia.
- The role of rumination in overgeneral memory is still not clear.
- Autobiographical memory therapies can be used in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Increasing evidence suggests that impaired autobiographical memory (AM) mechanisms may be associated with the onset and maintenance of psychopathology. However, there is not yet a comprehensive review of the components of autobiographical memory in schizophrenic patients. The first aim of this review is a synthesis of evidence about the functioning of AM in schizophrenic patients. The main autobiographical elements reviewed in schizophrenic patients include the study of overgeneral memory (form); self-defining memories (contents); consciousness during the process of retrieval (awareness), and the abnormal early reminiscence bump (distribution). AM impairments have been involved in the clinical diagnosis and prognosis of other psychopathologies, especially depression. The second aim is to examine potential parallels between the mechanisms responsible for the onset and maintenance of disturbed AM in other clinical diagnosis and the mechanisms of disturbed autobiographical memory functioning in schizophrenic patients. Cognitive therapies for schizophrenic patients are increasingly demanded. The third aim is the suggestion of key elements for the adaptation of components of autobiographical recall in cognitive therapies for the treatment of symptoms and consequences of schizophrenia.