University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
Depress Anxiety. 2011 Aug;28(8):658-65. doi: 10.1002/da.20866.
Complicated Grief (CG) is a chronic and debilitating consequence of bereavement. Although sharing features with depression and anxiety, CG is associated with independent negative health outcomes. Despite these significant health costs, relatively little is known about the cognitive mechanisms that contribute to the maintenance of CG. The ability to envisage the future is important for adaptive functioning. This study investigates future-related thinking in CG.
Twenty-one individuals with CG and 24 bereaved individuals without CG were asked to imagine specific events that may take place in their future and recall specific autobiographical memories in response to cue words, and complete a personal goals task.
CG participants were less specific in their imagining of future positive events and were more likely to imagine future events relating to their loss. The extent to which individuals were able to imagine a specific future event was significantly correlated with recalling specific memories. The tendency to imagine loss-related events in the future was associated with holding grief-related goals.
These results are consistent with propositions of the self-memory system model of autobiographical memory and shed light on factors that may maintain grieving in people affected by CG.
复杂型悲伤（CG）是丧亲后的一种慢性和虚弱的后果。尽管与抑郁和焦虑有共同的特征，但 CG 与独立的负面健康结果有关。尽管这些健康成本很高，但对于导致 CG 持续存在的认知机制知之甚少。想象未来的能力对于适应性功能很重要。本研究调查了 CG 中的与未来相关的思维。
21 名 CG 患者和 24 名没有 CG 的丧亲者被要求想象可能发生在他们未来的具体事件，并根据提示词回忆具体的自传体记忆，并完成个人目标任务。
CG 参与者在想象未来积极事件时不太具体，更有可能想象与他们的损失有关的未来事件。个体能够想象特定未来事件的程度与回忆特定记忆显著相关。倾向于在未来想象与损失相关的事件与持有与悲伤相关的目标有关。
这些结果与自传体记忆的自我记忆系统模型的假设一致，并阐明了可能维持受 CG 影响的人悲伤的因素。
