Persecutory delusions and autobiographical memory

Objectives. It was hypothesized that people with persecutory delusions, such as depressed people, would experience difficulty when attempting to generate specific autobiographical memories. Design. 20 deluded participants, 20 depressed patients and 20 normal controls were compared on an autobiographical memory test. Methods. Participants attempted to recall memories to positive and negative cue words. Independent raters classified responses as specific, general, imaginary or unscorable. Over-general memories were further classified as extended or categorical. Results. Deluded participants recalled significantly more general (especially categorical) memories and fewer specific memories than the normal control subjects. Depressed participants showed little evidence of over-general memories, although they showed faster recall latencies to negative than to positive cues. Conclusions. People with paranoid delusions show information processing features similar to those previously reported in people with depression. The possible contribution of adverse experiences to over-general autobiographical recall is discussed.