Autobiographical memories in women remitted from major depression.

Several studies show that depressed people tend to overgeneralize when asked to recall autobiographical memories (AM); in particular, they respond with categoric descriptions. The authors sought to find out whether this tendency also occurs after remission from depression. Two groups of women who were not depressed at the time of the study were compared; only 1 group had a history of major depression. With an AM test, women in remission from major depression retrieved significantly more categoric descriptions when responding to negative cue words than women without a major depression in their biography. These findings support the assumption that AM is a correlate and a consequence of depression.