The Effect of Memory Bias Modification on Remediation of Behavioral Symptoms and Memory Dysfunction in Depressed Patients: A Preliminary Study

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of the Program for Attentive Remediation of Memory Inclination (PARMIN) on remediation behavioral symptoms and memory impairment in patients with mild to severe depression and apply its results into the depression treatment. This study is a semi-experimental trial that involves a clinical intervention with three-stage evaluation (pre-test, post-test and a three-month follow-up), which lasted from November 2016 until the summer of 2017. The statistical population consisted of the patients who were referred to Shahid Beheshti University clinics. Based on the convenience sampling method, 15 individuals were randomly selected from 35 patients who had previously been diagnosed with symptoms of depression by a psychiatrist. These diagnoses were then confirmed through structured diagnostic interviews. The research instruments included the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II), the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90-R), and the N-Back Test (Face and Word) (N-BT). The results were analyzed using SPSS v. 23 and the output of the one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures showed that the intervention had a significant effect on improving the working memory and memory bias caused by depression (p <0.05). In addition, the effect of memory modification on reducing the patients' temperamental symptoms was significant, and after a three-month follow-up, these results proved to be stable (P<0.001). According to the findings, modification of the memory bias regardless of the severity of depression can be effective in reducing the cognitive and behavioral symptoms of depression.