Linguistic analysis of the autobiographical memories of individuals with major depressive disorder

BACKGROUND: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterized by biases in memory, attention, and cognition. The present study utilized the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) to examine the content of specific autobiographical memories (AMs) recalled by individuals with MDD during an autobiographical memory task. METHODS: We examined various features of the text (including use of affective, cognitive, and self-referential terms), as well as their associations with clinical and cognitive features of MDD (depression severity, autobiographical memory specificity, amygdala activity), in 45 unmedicated adults with MDD compared to 61 healthy controls. RESULTS: When recalling positive memories MDD individuals used the word “I” less, fewer positive words, more words indicating present focus (present tense verbs), and fewer words overall to describe memories compared to controls. When recalling negative memories, MDD individuals used “I” more, more words indicating present focus, and more words overall to describe memories relative to controls. Depression severity was correlated with word count, the use of “I”, and words indicating present focus in negative memories and inversely correlated with word count and the use of “I” in positive memories. Autobiographical memory specificity was correlated with word count, the use of “I”, and words indicating present focus for positive memories and inversely correlated with the use of “I” and words indicating present focus for negative memories. LIMITATIONS: Due to the nature of AM recall, we could not control for the number of memories which participants recalled in each mnemonic category. CONCLUSIONS: Results align with literature implicating rumination and intensive self-focus in depression and suggest that interventions targeting specific word use may be therapeutically beneficial in the treatment of MDD.