Autobiographical Memory for Stressful Events, Traumatic Memory and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review

Stressors and traumatic events may contribute in the development of many psychopathologies, especially Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD. People with this disorder can present significant memory loss, particularly in Autobiographical Memory (AM). This paper aims to present a systematic review of the literature regarding the changes in the Autobiographical Memory in people exposed to potentially traumatic stressors. Therefore a research in the databases PsycINFO, PubMed, Web of Science and Pilots was performed during March 2012. A total of 29 articles were selected. Results demonstrate that people with PTSD present alterations in a larger number of AM components compared to the cases where PTSD did not develop the disorder. In the same way, subjects who were never exposed to trauma did not demonstrate significant AM alterations when compared to the other groups. The results indicate that the changes in AM are primarily associated with PTSD, yet it was not possible to clarify whether such changes are related to the timely development of the disorder or if they are also observed in traumatic memories even in the absence of the disorder.