Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes

Unwanted memories of traumatic events are a core symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. A range of interventions including imaginal exposure and elaboration of the trauma memory in its autobiographical context are effective in reducing such unwanted memories. This study explored whether priming...

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Main Authors: Ehlers, A, Mauchnik, J, Handley, R
Formato: Journal article
Idioma:English
Publicado em: 2012
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author Ehlers, A
Mauchnik, J
Handley, R
author_facet Ehlers, A
Mauchnik, J
Handley, R
author_sort Ehlers, A
collection OXFORD
description Unwanted memories of traumatic events are a core symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. A range of interventions including imaginal exposure and elaboration of the trauma memory in its autobiographical context are effective in reducing such unwanted memories. This study explored whether priming for stimuli that occur in the context of trauma and evaluative conditioning may play a role in the therapeutic effects of these procedures. Healthy volunteers (N = 122) watched analogue traumatic and neutral picture stories. They were then randomly allocated to 20 min of either imaginal exposure, autobiographical memory elaboration, or a control condition designed to prevent further processing of the picture stories. A blurred picture identification task showed that neutral objects that preceded traumatic pictures in the stories were subsequently more readily identified than those that had preceded neutral stories, indicating enhanced priming. There was also an evaluative conditioning effect in that participants disliked neutral objects that had preceded traumatic pictures more. Autobiographical memory elaboration reduced the enhanced priming effect. Both interventions reduced the evaluative conditioning effect. Imaginal exposure and autobiographical memory elaboration both reduced the frequency of subsequent unwanted memories of the picture stories. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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spelling oxford-uuid:ea93ea2b-bffe-4e5c-810f-1c6f06e785e82022-03-27T11:03:18ZReducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processesJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:ea93ea2b-bffe-4e5c-810f-1c6f06e785e8EnglishSymplectic Elements at Oxford2012Ehlers, AMauchnik, JHandley, RUnwanted memories of traumatic events are a core symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. A range of interventions including imaginal exposure and elaboration of the trauma memory in its autobiographical context are effective in reducing such unwanted memories. This study explored whether priming for stimuli that occur in the context of trauma and evaluative conditioning may play a role in the therapeutic effects of these procedures. Healthy volunteers (N = 122) watched analogue traumatic and neutral picture stories. They were then randomly allocated to 20 min of either imaginal exposure, autobiographical memory elaboration, or a control condition designed to prevent further processing of the picture stories. A blurred picture identification task showed that neutral objects that preceded traumatic pictures in the stories were subsequently more readily identified than those that had preceded neutral stories, indicating enhanced priming. There was also an evaluative conditioning effect in that participants disliked neutral objects that had preceded traumatic pictures more. Autobiographical memory elaboration reduced the enhanced priming effect. Both interventions reduced the evaluative conditioning effect. Imaginal exposure and autobiographical memory elaboration both reduced the frequency of subsequent unwanted memories of the picture stories. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
spellingShingle Ehlers, A
Mauchnik, J
Handley, R
Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes
title Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes
title_full Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes
title_fullStr Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes
title_full_unstemmed Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes
title_short Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes
title_sort reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration an analogue study of memory processes
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AT mauchnikj reducingunwantedtraumamemoriesbyimaginalexposureorautobiographicalmemoryelaborationananaloguestudyofmemoryprocesses
AT handleyr reducingunwantedtraumamemoriesbyimaginalexposureorautobiographicalmemoryelaborationananaloguestudyofmemoryprocesses