Keeler Johanna Louise, Cardi Valentina, Peters-Gill Georgia, Himmerich Hubertus, Tchanturia Kate, Treasure Janet
Department of Psychological Medicine, Centre for Research in Eating and Weight Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, SE5 8AF, UK.
Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padua, Italy.
J Eat Disord. 2025 May 30;13(1):94. doi: 10.1186/s40337-025-01280-4.
People with anorexia nervosa (AN) show deficiencies with recalling specific details of autobiographical memories (AM). This may interfere with wider processes of self-narrative construction and identity building, which are a fundamental part of the recovery process. However, no studies have examined the temporal stability of AM deficiencies over time or their prognostic value in this population.
This study followed up adults with mostly longstanding AN that participated in a previous study examining AM and episodic future thinking (EFT) abilities after 3 years. A total of 20 participants with AN responded (44% of the original sample) and repeated a remotely administered written version of the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT) and Episodic Future Thinking Task (EFT-T) and a series of questionnaires. The word lists used were identical to the previous study, but were alternated for the present study (i.e., participants viewing list A for the AMT previously saw list B in the follow-up). Task outcomes included AM and EFT specificity, vividness, difficulty to remember/imagine, positivity, realisticness and detailedness.
Respondents had persistently high eating disorder psychopathology and comorbid psychiatric symptoms at follow-up. Body mass index (BMI) increased in most participants (n = 15), albeit the group average was 17.2 kg/m. There was comparable performance on the AMT and EFT-T at both baseline and at follow-up. Analyses interrogating prognosis were not possible due to the homogeneity in ED-related outcomes, although baseline AM specificity was not related to BMI, ED symptoms, depressive symptoms or measures of identity functioning (i.e., consolidated identity, disturbed identity, or lack of identity), at follow-up.
Problems with retrieving specific details of AMs show temporal stability over time in people with longstanding AN. The prognostic value of AM specificity on ED outcomes remains unknown, which future well-controlled prospective longitudinal studies could address.
神经性厌食症（AN）患者在回忆自传体记忆（AM）的具体细节方面存在缺陷。这可能会干扰自我叙事构建和身份认同形成等更广泛的过程，而这些过程是康复过程的重要组成部分。然而，尚无研究考察过AM缺陷随时间的稳定性或其在该人群中的预后价值。
本研究对大多患有长期AN的成年人进行了随访，这些成年人曾参与过一项考察AM和情景未来思维（EFT）能力的研究，3年后再次参与研究。共有20名AN患者做出回应（占原始样本的44%），并再次完成了远程 administered书面版自传体记忆测试（AMT）、情景未来思维任务（EFT-T）以及一系列问卷。使用的单词列表与之前的研究相同，但在本次研究中进行了交替（即之前在AMT中查看列表A的参与者在随访中查看列表B）。任务结果包括AM和EFT的特异性、生动性、记忆/想象难度、积极性、现实性和详细程度。
随访时，受访者的饮食失调精神病理学和共病精神症状持续严重。大多数参与者（n = 15）的体重指数（BMI）有所增加，尽管组平均BMI为17.2kg/m²。在基线和随访时，AMT和EFT-T的表现相当。由于与进食障碍相关的结果具有同质性，因此无法进行预后分析，尽管随访时基线AM特异性与BMI、进食障碍症状、抑郁症状或身份功能测量指标（即整合身份、身份紊乱或身份缺失）无关。
在患有长期AN的人群中，回忆AM具体细节的问题随时间表现出时间稳定性。AM特异性对进食障碍结果的预后价值仍然未知，未来设计良好的前瞻性纵向研究可以解决这一问题。
