Overgenerality Bias and these Consequences

in Borderline Personality DisorderBoulanger, M., Smets, V. and Blairy S.

University of Liège, Liège

INTRODUCTION Previous researches have shown

disturbances in autobiographical memory (AM) among several psychiatric disorders such as depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

• AM is an entity that encompasses the individuals 'past personnal experiences. This disturbances take the overgeneral retrieving form. Thus, when patients were asked to retrieve a specific event located in time and place, they recalled an overgeneral event.

The researches showed that AM deficits is related to decreasing of the ability to solve interpersonal problem (Evans et al., 1992; Goddard et al., 1996) and impairments to project oneself into the specific future events (D'Argembeau et al., 2008; Williams et al., 1996). Impairments to respond adequately to social problems or to concrete plans for the future create hopelessness and to contribute to suicide attempt (Arie et al., 2008).

Given the high risk of suicide or suicide attempts present in the Bordeline Personality Disorder (BPD), consideration of AM in this population is appropriate.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the present study was investigate the AM, the projection into the future and the problem solving in

patients suffering from BPD.

RESULTS

1. The analyses revealed a significant difference between both groups on the two versions from TeMA:

• On past version: a significant group by type of memory interaction emerged (F(2,80) =4.53; p=.013) which indicates that the patients with BPD recollected less specific events and more overgeneral events than controls (t(40)= 2.21; p=.032, t(40)=2.2; p=.033,respectively)

• On future version: a significant group by type of memory interaction emerged (F(2,80) =11.57; p<.001) which indicates that the patients with BPD generated less specific events and more overgeneral events than controls (t(40)= 3.39; p=.001, t(40)=3.51; p=.001,respectively).

2. The number of past and future specific events was marginally correlated

(r(42)=.31, p=.051). The results did not reveal significant correlation

between number of past specific events and problem solving didn’t

correlate.

3. The analysis did not reveal any difference between the both groups on OTT and neuropsychological measures.

METHOD21 BPD and 21 healthy controls (HC) wereparticipated In this study. The depression wascontrolled.

Participants were asked to respond to various

questionnaires following:

1. TeMA , A validated French versions (Neumann & Philippot, unpublished manuscript) of the AMT:

• Past version: participants were asked to retrieve specific personal events in response to ten cue words.

• Future version: participants were asked to generate specific personal events that could occur to them in the future in response to ten cue words

2. The Optional Thinking Test (OTT, Platt & Spivack, 1977):

Measures the ability of individuals to conceive solutions in the face of four everyday problems. Participants were asked to generate the most appropriate solutions.

3. Neuropsychological measures: - Digit Span Forwards and Backwards

(Wechsler, 1997); - Stroop-Color Word Test (Stroop, 1935); - Verbal Fluency Task (Benton &

Hamsher, 1976).

DISCUSSION• As other clinical populations, the subjects with a BPD seem to encounter deficits to retrieve specific past events.• These impairments are associated with deficits to imagine specific future events. • The observation of reduced specificity in the generation of autobiographical material is particularly clinically

relevant. Indeed, difficulty in imagining the future may contribute to relapse. In conclusion, more systematic measure of this ability should be taken in both research and clinical fields.

  BPD HCTeMA    

Past Specific Memories Recall 7.43(1.63) 8.57(1.72)

Past General Memories Recall 2.19(1.54) 1.19 (1.4)

Future Specific Events Recall 3.86(2.24) 6.1(2.02)

Future general Events Recall 6(2.34) 3.62(2.03)

Neuropsychological measures    

Digit Span Forwards 10.1(2.51) 9.76(2.68)

Digit Span Backwards 6.71(2.83) 7.43(2.6)

Verbal Fluency 37.14(8.58) 36.47(7.77)

Interference STROOP105.57(26.63)

101.38(28.77)

Problem Solving

OTT 11.47(3.11) 12.81(2.99)

Means(SD) of results from differnets measurements