Autobiographical memory retrieval and problem-solving deficits of Iranian depressed patients attempting suicide

The underlying hypothesis was that suicide attempters tend to retrieve overgeneral autobiographical memories, with a considerable latency. Two cognitive measures (Autobiographical Memory Test and Means-Ends Problem-Solving Task, Persian versions) were used to assess 20 suicide patients who met DSM-IV criteria for depression, in comparison with a matched control group. The results showed that the suicide attempters produced more overgeneral memories and responded more slowly to positive than negative cue words, compared to the control participants. In the problem-solving task, the depressed patients evidenced less effective strategies, fewer and more irrelevant means, and took longer to respond to the task than the matched healthy participants. Moreover, there were significant correlations between autobiographical memory and problem-solving variables.