PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Improving memory for specific events can alleviate symptoms of depression

2012-09-17
(Press-News.org) Hear the word "party" and memories of your 8th birthday sleepover or the big bash you attended last New Year's may come rushing to mind. But it's exactly these kinds of memories, embedded in a specific place and time, that people with depression have difficulty recalling.

Research has shown that people who suffer from, or are at risk of, depression have difficulty tapping into specific memories from their own past, an impairment that affects their ability to solve problems and leads them to focus on feelings of distress.

In a study forthcoming in Clinical Psychological Science, a new journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychological scientists Hamid Neshat-Doost of the University of Isfahan, Iran, Laura Jobson of the University of East Anglia, Tim Dalgleish of the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Medical Research Council, Cambridge and colleagues investigated whether a particular training program, Memory Specificity Training, might improve people's memory for past events and ameliorate their symptoms of depression.

In Iran, the researchers recruited 23 adolescent Afghani refugees who had lost their fathers in the war in Afghanistan and who showed symptoms of depression. Twelve of the adolescents were randomly assigned to participate in the memory training program and 11 were randomly assigned to a control group that received no training.

All of the adolescents completed a memory test in which they saw 18 positive, neutral, and negative words in Persian and were asked to recall a specific memory related to each word. Their responses were categorized as either a specific or a non-specific type of memory. They also completed questionnaires design to measure symptoms of depression and anxiety symptoms.

For five weeks, the adolescents assigned to the training attended a weekly 80-minute group session, in which they learned about different types of memory and memory recall, and practiced recalling specific memories after being given positive, neutral, and negative keywords.

At the end of the five weeks, both the training group and the control group were given the same memory test that they were given at the beginning of the study. And they took the memory test again as part of a follow-up visit two months later.

The adolescents who participated in the training were able to provide more specific memories after the training than those who did not receive intervention. They also showed fewer symptoms of depression than the control group at the two month follow-up. The researchers found that the relationship between participant group (training or control) and their symptoms of depression at follow-up could be accounted for by changes in specific memory recall over time.

These findings are promising because they suggest that a standalone training program that focuses on specific memory recall can actually improve depression symptoms.

Based on the results of this study, Jobson, Dalgleish, and colleagues conclude that, for individuals suffering from depression, "including a brief training component that targets memory recall as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral therapy or prior therapy may have beneficial effects on memory recall and mood."

### Clinical Psychological Science — a new journal from APS — publishes advances in clinical science and provides a venue for cutting-edge research across a wide range of conceptual views, approaches, and topics. The journal encompasses many core domains that have defined clinical psychology, but also boundary-crossing advances that integrate and make contact with diverse disciplines and that may not easily be found in traditional clinical psychology journals. Among the key topics are research on the underlying mechanisms and etiologies of psychological health and dysfunction; basic and applied work on the diagnosis, assessment, treatment, and prevention of mental illness; service delivery; and promotion of well-being.

For more information about this study, please contact: Tim Dalgliesh at Tim.Dalgleish@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk.

Clinical Psychological Science is APS's newest journal. For a copy of the article "Enhancing autobiographical memory specificity through cognitive training: A intervention for depression translated from basic science" and access to other Clinical Psychological Science research findings, please contact Anna Mikulak at 202-293-9300 or amikulak@psychologicalscience.org.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Home Security That's a Perfect Fit for Your Lifestyle

2012-09-17
LifeShield Security is proud to announce LifeShield Lifestyles, a unique tool to help consumers to choose home security systems and products that fit their routines and personalities. By offering security systems that are designed for individuals, families, and real-life situations, LifeShield is continuing its mission to go "beyond the alarm" and provide advanced technology wireless security and peace of mind. "Home security is really about people, not houses. Homeowners and renters don't install alarm systems to protect walls, ceilings and doors. They ...

Flu antibody’s 'one-handed grab' may boost effort toward universal vaccine, new therapies

Flu antibody’s one-handed grab may boost effort toward universal vaccine, new therapies
2012-09-17
LA JOLLA, CA -- Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute and Sea Lane Biotechnologies have solved the co-crystal structure of a human antibody that can neutralize influenza viruses in a unique way. The antibody recognizes the crucial structure that flu viruses use to attach to host cells, even though previously this structure had been thought too small for an antibody to grab effectively. The immune protein manages to hit this precise spot by using just a small part of its target-grabbing apparatus. In so doing, it can neutralize a broad range of dangerous flu viruses. "This ...

Most coral reefs are at risk unless climate change is drastically limited

2012-09-17
Only under a scenario with strong action on mitigating greenhouse-gas emissions and the assumption that corals can adapt at extremely rapid rates, could two thirds of them be safe, shows a study now published in Nature Climate Change. Otherwise all coral reefs are expected to be subject to severe degradation. Coral reefs house almost a quarter of the species in the oceans and provide critical services – including coastal protection, tourism and fishing – to millions of people worldwide. Global warming and ocean acidification, both driven by human-caused CO2 emissions, ...

Chemists develop reversible method of tagging proteins

2012-09-17
Chemists at UC San Diego have developed a method that for the first time provides scientists the ability to attach chemical probes onto proteins and subsequently remove them in a repeatable cycle. Their achievement, detailed in a paper that appears online this week in the journal Nature Methods, will allow researchers to better understand the biochemistry of naturally formed proteins in order to create better antibiotics, anti-cancer drugs, biofuels, food crops and other natural products. It will also provide scientists with a new laboratory tool they can use to purify ...

Biggest European health study identifies key priorities in 26 cities

2012-09-17
Researchers have announced the results of the largest ever health and lifestyle survey of cities and conurbations across Europe – including five British urban centres. The research examined and compared the health, life expectancy and lifestyles of the populations of 26 European cities (the Euro-26) and found major differences, not only between cities, but within individual urban areas too. The pan-European study, led in the UK by the Universities of Manchester and Liverpool, identified key priority areas for each city studied that the researchers hope policymakers ...

Chinese scientists discover MVK mutations associated with DSAP

2012-09-17
September 16, 2012, Shenzhen, China–A Chinese research team, led by Anhui Medical University and BGI, has found the strong genetic evidences of mevalonate kinase gene (MVK) mutations link to disseminated superficial actinic porokeratosis (DSAP). It is a major step toward discovering the genetic pathogenesisof DSAP, and sheds an eye-opening insight into its further molecular diagnosis and treatment. The latest study was published online in Nature Genetics. DSAP is a rare, non-cancerous, non-contagious skin disorderthat causes dry, itchy lesions on the arms and legs. It ...

How bees decide what to be

How bees decide what to be
2012-09-17
Johns Hopkins scientists report what is believed to be the first evidence that complex, reversible behavioral patterns in bees – and presumably other animals – are linked to reversible chemical tags on genes. The scientists say what is most significant about the new study, described online September 16 in Nature Neuroscience, is that for the first time DNA methylation "tagging" has been linked to something at the behavioral level of a whole organism. On top of that, they say, the behavior in question, and its corresponding molecular changes, are reversible, which has ...

Clinic-based community program helps with childhood obesity

2012-09-17
Could a clinic-based intervention that assists in dealing with childhood obesity be scaled down into an easily-taught, community-based program? Yes, according to a new feasibility study conducted by researchers at Temple University's Center for Obesity Research and Education and published in the journal, Pediatrics. Working in partnership with UnitedHealth Group and the Greater Providence YMCA, the Temple researchers conducted a six-month program on weight loss and management for 155 children and their parents or guardians in Providence, R.I. "We've known for decades ...

Study suggests gap in treatment of sexually transmitted diseases among teens

2012-09-17
STANFORD, Calif. - California's pediatricians-in-training are not adequately educated about the methods to prevent recurrent sexually transmitted infections in teenagers. That's the conclusion of a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital examining pediatric residents' knowledge of laws governing treatment of their patients' sexual partners. "Unless you treat the partner, your patient gets re-infected," Neville Golden, MD, an adolescent medicine specialist at Packard Children's and professor of pediatrics at Stanford. ...

PARP inhibitors may have clinical utility in HER2-positive breast cancers

2012-09-17
PHILADELPHIA — Poly (ADP-Ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, shown to have clinical activity when used alone in women with familial breast and ovarian cancers linked to BRCA mutations, may be a novel treatment strategy in women with HER2-positive breast cancers, according to the results of a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Currently, women with HER2-positive breast cancers are treated with therapies that target HER2. However, many women with this form of cancer either fail to ever respond to these targeted ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Transforming treatment outcomes for people with OCD

Damage from smoke and respiratory viruses mitigated in mice via a common signaling pathway

New software tool could help better understand childhood cancer

Healthy lifestyle linked to lower diverticulitis risk, irrespective of genetic susceptibility

Women 65+ still at heightened risk of cervical cancer caused by HPV

‘Inflammatory’ diet during pregnancy may raise child’s diabetes type 1 risk

Effective therapies needed to halt rise in eco-anxiety, says psychology professor

Nature-friendly farming boosts biodiversity and yields but may require new subsidies

Against the odds: Endometriosis linked to four times higher pregnancy rates than other causes of infertility, new study reveals

Microplastics discovered in human reproductive fluids, new study reveals

Family ties and firm performance: How cousin marriage traditions shape informal businesses in Africa

Novel flu vaccine adjuvant improves protection against influenza viruses, study finds

Manipulation of light at the nanoscale helps advance biosensing

New mechanism discovered in ovarian cancer peritoneal metastasis: YWHAB restriction drives stemness and chemoresistance

New study links blood metabolites and immune cells to increased risk of urolithiasis

Pyruvate identified as a promising therapeutic agent for ulcerative colitis by targeting cytosolic phospholipase A2

New insights into the clinical impact of IKBKG mutations: Understanding the mechanisms behind rare immunodeficiency syndromes

Displays, imaging and sensing: New blue fluorophore breaks efficiency records in both solids and solutions

Sugar, the hidden thermostat in plants

Personality can explain why some CEOs earn higher salaries

This puzzle game shows kids how they’re smarter than AI

Study suggests remembrances of dead played role in rise of architecture in Andean region

Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections

Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds

Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance

Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting

Aston University research: Parents should encourage structure and independence around food to support children’s healthy eating

Thunderstorms are a major driver of tree death in tropical forests

[Press-News.org] Improving memory for specific events can alleviate symptoms of depression