Autobiographical memory style and clinical outcomes following mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT): An individual patient data meta-analysis
Behaviour Research and Therapy May 25, 2021 C. Hitchcock, C. Haag, Alicia J. Smith et al. preprint
Memory specificity—the ability to recall specific, single-incident autobiographical memories—has been thought to predict recurrent depression. This individual patient data meta-analysis examined whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) improves memory specificity and whether pre-treatment memory specificity moderates treatment response. Across datasets including 880 participants, memory specificity did not significantly change from before to after treatment for either MBCT or control interventions. Baseline memory specificity did not predict treatment response, whether measured by symptom levels or relapse risk. These findings question the assumed role of memory specificity in treatments for depression.