Overgeneral Autobiographical Memory is a Cognitive Risk Factor of Depressive Disorders’ Occurrence and Chronification

Abstract

Over recent years, the autobiographical memory’s globalization role as a risk factor for the occurrence and chronicification of depressive disorders has been widely discussed in foreign
literature. The article describes the relationship between the structure and content of autobiographical memory violations on one side, and the symptoms and manifestations of depression,
on the other; describes the manifestation of the memories’ globalization and the methods of its investigations. It is shown that the autobiographical memory globalization as a difficulty in
actualizing specific events is related to the complex of cognitive dysfunctions Q ruminative thinking, functional avoidance and reduction of executive control (regulatory functions). A brief
description of MemFlex – a training program for increasing the specificity of autobiographical memory is given. There are formulated research directions of the further phenomenon of
autobiographical memory globalization in patients with depression.