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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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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ehlers, Anke, Mauchnik, Jana, Handley, Rachel
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3521124/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21227404
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.12.009
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author Ehlers, Anke
Mauchnik, Jana
Handley, Rachel
author_facet Ehlers, Anke
Mauchnik, Jana
Handley, Rachel
author_sort Ehlers, Anke
collection PubMed
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.
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spelling pubmed-35211242012-12-24 Reducing unwanted trauma memories by imaginal exposure or autobiographical memory elaboration: An analogue study of memory processes Ehlers, Anke Mauchnik, Jana Handley, Rachel J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry Article 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. Elsevier 2012-12 /pmc/articles/PMC3521124/ /pubmed/21227404 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.12.009 Text en © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Open Access under CC BY 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) license
spellingShingle Article
Ehlers, Anke
Mauchnik, Jana
Handley, Rachel
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
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3521124/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21227404
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.12.009
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