Tímea KOVÁCS (KRIZBAI) 1,2 , Pál SZABÓ1, Bea PÁSZTHY3
1University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
2Sapientia, Hungarian University of Transylvania, Târgu-Mureş, Romania
3Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary
Abstract
During the past years many researchers have focused their attention on autobiographical memory and its deficits in clinical samples suffering of emotional disturbance. The aim of this research was to study autobiographical memory functioning in anorexia nervosa patients, taking into account the duration of illness, the subjective evaluation and the date of the recalled memory, the pleasantness of the recalled memory and the level of depression. Patients with restrictive anorexia nervosa were compared with a group of healthy teenagers using the Autobiographical Memory Test, the Child Depression Inventory and the Eating Disorder Inventory. Anorexic girls recalled more general (extended and categoric) memories than the controls for each type of cue word (positive, negative and neutral), suggesting a general difficulty in the access to emotional memories.
Keywords: anorexia nervosa, autobiographical memory, specific memory, depression
Pages: 57-66
