The Role of Autobiographical Memory Deficits in the Experiential Negative Symptoms of Psychosis

Abstract

The negative symptoms of psychosis and depressive symptomatology share several features e.g. low motivation, apathy and reduced activity. Understanding the links between these two sets of symptoms will inform the development of future interventions targeting these difficulties in people with psychosis. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to quantify the relationship between these two clusters of symptoms, as measured in studies to date. Further analyses investigate potential moderating variables. PsycInfo, Embase and Medline were systematically searched to identify eligible studies. Inclusion criteria measured both depression and negative symptoms using validated measures in a sample with non-affective psychosis diagnoses. 2020 records were initially screened and 56 were included in the meta-analysis and review. Both meta-analyses and meta-regressions were conducted to explore the main effect and potential moderating variables. The findings showed a significant but small relationship between negative and depressive symptoms (Effect Size = 0.19). This did not vary greatly with the measures used and was not moderated by demographic variables or quality ratings. Depression and negative symptom severity showed an inverse reciprocal relationship. Heterogeneity was high across these analyses. The findings show that there is a relationship between depression and negative symptoms in people with psychosis. This is taken as support for the dimensional approach to understanding symptoms in this population.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	King's College London
Supervisor	Amy Hardy (Supervisor) & Philippa Garety (Supervisor)