Dependant measures

1
Bipolar disorder (BD) is accompanied by deficit
in autobiographical memories (AM) (Scott al.,
2000 Mansell Lam, 2004). In others words when
these patients are instructed to recall a
specific event distinctly located in time and
place (e.g. The day where I failed my chemistry
test in June) they recall an extended event (e.g.
When I was University) or a category of repeated
events (e.g. When I went to the cinema). Previous
research showed that impairments in the
recollection of specific past event are
correlated to difficulties to generate specific
future events in schizophrenia patients
(DArgembeau, Raffard and Van-der-Linden, 2008
Neumann, Blairy, Lecompte, Nachtergael and
Philippot (unpublished).
PAST AND FUTURE EVENTS SPECIFICITY IN BIPOLAR
DISORDERS Marie Boulanger, Aurélie
Lejeune Sylvie Blairy University of
Liege, Belgium
INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the present study was investigated
the impairments in AM as well as the ability to
generate specific future events in patients
suffering from bipolar disorder.
METHOD

• Dependant measures
• A validated French versions (Neumann Philippot,
  unpublished manuscript) of the AMT (Williams
  Broadbent, 1986).
• A past version participants were asked to
  retrieve specific personal events in response to
  ten cue words.
• A future version participants were asked to
  generate specific personal events that could
  occur to them in the future in response to ten
  cue words.

Participants
19 healthy subjectsnever had to present one or
many depressive episode, manic episode or,
hypomanic episode.
19 patients fulfilled the DSM-IV criteria for
bipolar disorder (bipolar I or bipolar II).
RESULTS

• For each task, past and future, a mixed design
  2(group) x 3(memory type) ANOVA was conducted to
  the number of generated events
• For the past task a significant group by memory
  interaction emerged
• (F(2,72) 4.7 p.012) which indicates that the
  patients with BD
• recollected less specific events and more
  overgeneral events than controls
• (respectively, t(36) 2,37 p.029 t(36)
  2.31 p.026)
• (see table 1)
• For the future task a significant group by
  memory interaction emerged
• (F(2,72) 8.79 plt.001) which indicates that
  the patients with BD
• were less specific and more overgeneral than
  controls when
• they project into the future (respectively,
  t(36) 3.96 plt.001 t(36) 2.78 p .008)
• (see table 2).
• Furthermore, the numbers of specific past and
  specific future events are
• correlated in group control (?.60).

Table 1. Mean specificity to past version TeMA
Table 2. Mean specificity to future version
TeMA
DISCUSSION
To our knowledge, the present study is the first
one to investigate the ability to generate past
as well as specific future events in patients
with bipolar disorders. The results are in line
with the results of Scott al., (2000) and
Mansell Lam (2004) and the results of previous
studies with patients having an emotional
disorders that is AM performance in patients
with BD is effectively impaired in comparison to
healthy individuals for past as well as future
events. The reduced capacities to generate
personal specific life events is particularly
clinically relevant. Indeed, according to
Williams et al. (1996), difficulty in imagining
the future may contribute to impairments in
problem solving and to suicidal behaviors.
Regarding the important role that plays the
inability to imagine the future in suicidal
ideations, more systematic measure of this
ability should be taken in both research and
clinical fields.

DArgembeau, A., Raffard, S., Van der Linden,
M. (2008). Remembering the past and imagining the
future in schizophrenia. Journal of Abnormal
Psychology, 117(1), 247-251. Mansell, W., Lam,
D. (2004). A preliminary study of
autobiographical memory in remitted bipolar and
unipolar depression and the role of imagery in
the specificity of memory. Memory, 12(4),
437-446.Neumann, A., Philippot, P.
(unpublished). Tâche dEvaluation de la Mémoire
Autobiographique  TeMA. Validation française de
lAutobiographical Memory Test. Neumann, Blairy,
Lecompte, Nachtergael and Philippot
(unpublished). Reduced specificity of
autobiographical memory and personal projection
in the future in schizophrenia. Scott, J.,
Stanton, B., Garland, A., Ferrier, I.N. (2000).
Cognitive vulnerability in patients with bipolar
disorders. Psychological Medicine, 30, 467-472.
Williams, Ellis, Tyers, Healy, Rose and MacLeod
(1996). Yhe specificity of autobiographical
memory and imageability of the future. Memory and
cognition, 24, 116-125.
Correspondence to adress to Marie Boulanger,
Departement of Cognitive Science, University of
Liège, Boulevard du Rectorat 3 (B33), 4000
Liège, Belgium. E-mail marie.boulanger_at_ulg.ac.be