Cognitive processing of adverse experiences

Abstract

Cognitive theories of depression have proposed that negative attitudes about the self are activated either by recent life events or by the experience of depression itself, and contribute either to the onset or the course of the disorder, or to both. However, attitudinal measures have been relatively unsuccessful in predicting in advance who is likely to become depressed. In contrast, biographical details of childhood and recent adversity are relatively powerful predictors of depression onset. Other recent research has found that depressed patients often experience high levels of repeated intrusive memories of specific instances of adversity. Both reports of abuse, as well as intrusion and avoidance of memories of this abuse, are related to the production of over-general memories on an autobiographical memory test and to other measures of depressive attitudes and cognitions. These findings suggest that depression may be intimately connected with the emotional processing of memories of specific traumatic or stressful events. They direct attention to the processes whereby memories of trauma may be both activated and inhibited for relatively long periods, and suggest new therapeutic possibilities for prevention of onset and relapse.