False Memory Susceptability Case Study

The research question that I am interested in answering is whether a combined prolonged exposure (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) approach is useful in treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The ideal study would include four groups: one to receive PE, one to receive CPT, one to receive both PE and CPT, and one that does not receive an intervention. The groups would consist of an equal 50/50 male to female ratio (half of the participants would be male, half would be female) to control for gender. The participants would be contacted based on information gathered about veterans with PTSD by the local U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs offices in Orange County, California.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR) requires ruling out malingering before diagnosis of PTSD is rendered. MMPI-2 is frequently used and contains “fake-bad” validity scales, which can be used to detect the “fake-bad” symptoms from someone who claims they have PTSD. Faking the symptoms is common and can be difficult for a therapist to discover. Sometimes, a client will bond with a therapist, and because the bond includes trust, the therapist is reluctant to test the client or even question the client. Information about PTSD is readily available and easy to obtain, so clients are in essence coached into the necessary symptoms.

Morris states that PTSD is often thought of as being a syndrome of remembering things too well. He adds that “the ones who ‘forget,’ they suffer later” (Morris 35).

Psychologists have diligently studied the human mind for many years and have yet to discover some of the ways that the brain performs simple and complex tasks. Since the knowledge that has been obtained concerning processes of the brain remains a mere fraction compared to what is unknown about cognitive functioning, individuals cannot fully grasp the reasoning behind why the brain performs some of the acts it does. Many people daydream, picture themselves recovering lost items in obscure places, or even create stories repeated so much that individuals begin to believe they may have happened; all three of these examples are forms of creating a false memory. Many psychologists have researched, evaluated, and experimented with false memory, which has lead to the discovery of False Memory Syndrome, a condition in which individuals contract false memories while almost always remaining oblivious to the act of creating a memory that is not factual or concrete (Berger 1). False memory syndrome develops as a result of many different internal and external forces such as mind manipulation in psychological malpractice, severe trauma to the brain in the first few years of life, a traumatic experience, or even by forcing one’s self into believing an entirely made-up thought; however, seemingly healthy individuals can contract the syndrome without the slightest idea it is present.

In Tori DeAngelis article “PTSD Treatments Grow in Evidence, Effectiveness” she argues that several psychological interventions help to significantly reduce post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. But after reading the article an impression that its content is somehow contradictory to the title, as its main statement may be evaluated as “More PTSD treatments are developed and practiced, though all of them still lack reliable evidence and their consequences are not fully predictable”.

This study was conducted to find any neural connections of traumatic memories in patients with PTSD and without by utilizing MRI scans. This matters to us in the big picture of neuroscience/ biopsychology because it shows if regions in the brain, such as the thalamus, Brodmann’s area 11, and the Brodmann’s area 32 are active in the patients, then that means that the symptom present in PTSD shows improvement in memory performance. Basically, what that means is that patients with PTSD can recall traumatic memory quicker than the typical person would. By knowing this, psychologists can easily understand memory recall times in patients with PTSD vs patients without PTSD.

The expectation of these study was allowing the neural correlates of memories of childhood abuse to see if there was any different posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In any case with or without (PTSD). Indeed, there were a study about 22 woman with a pass history with childhood sexual abuse. They were monitoring their image of the brain function, while they were exposure to these agony. They compare these image with the women with sexual abuse and the women without sexual abuse; the women who suffer CSA has more blood flow into their brain and the women with PTSD. Women with sexual abuse has lower blood flow in alteration in their medical prefrontal cortex. Childhood sexual abuse is in regular to our society and it happen often than we thing it could happen it 16% of even women and it rarely faded, (Bremner, Narayan, Staib, Southwick, & al, e.

For an adult to be diagnosed with PTSD he must have the following traits at least for a period of one month: he should have an experience that is occurring frequently, should have a single avoidance symptom, and should have two reactivity and arousal traits, mood and cognition indications. An experience that occurs severally may be inform of a terrifying thoughts, bad visions or nightmares flashbacks that relieves the trauma , it may involve physical body traits like sweating and a racing heart. The events that keeps on recurring usually affects a person’s daily activities, the symptom may develop from an individual’s feelings, objects, thoughts or incidences that acts as reminders to the incidence.

Since then, the diagnosis of PTSD has been pushed around in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, where it was initially believed to only last a short period of time. Later, it was included in “adjustment reaction to adult life” which was highly insufficient to summarize the disorder. After continuing research, it was noted that PTSD is a relatively common disorder with evidence showing that “4% of men and 10% of women will be diagnosed with [it] in their lifetime” (Friedman). Also, PTSD is no longer categorized as an anxiety

Imagine this sceneario, a 24-year old woman begins her first week of therapy with a psychologist. She explains moments of hypervigilance, irritability, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, dissociation, and moments of memory loss. Within the following weeks the psychologist diagnoses this patient with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As she completes cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with the combination of psychoanalysis, childhood sexual abuse is identified. However, as the client digs deeper into the trauma, she begins to suffer from symptoms of memory loss in accordance with the trauma.

PTSD is a well-known and prevalent psychiatric disorder. Lifetime prevalence is 2.3% in South Africa, 2.2% in Spain, 8.8% in Northern Ireland, and 7.8% in US (309). Additionally, army veterans are more likely to develop PTSD, as they are more vulnerable to experience traumatic events. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, between 11% to 20% of veterans who served in Operations Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operations Enduring Freedom (OEF) have PTSD in a given year. Moreover, approximately 12% of the veterans that served in the Gulf War have PTSD in that same given year (How Common is PTSD?). Hence, it is possible to realize that a great number of people have PTSD. This also identifies the fact that a great number of people are suffering from PTSD symptoms.

Roediger and McDermott (1995) conducted a laboratory demonstration of false memory to what came to be known as DRM (Deese-Roediger-McDermott) task. What is interesting from this experiment is that false memories are linked with the memory of something that did not happen. Therefore, regarding content accuracy, the performance would be exactly what we would expect. For instance, in the DRM task, the participants were given words like bed, rest, awake, pillow, and sleep, and immediately, sleep was the word which came in their mind because those words are associated with sleep. However, the technical accuracy is poor since they said sleep due to their understanding of the provided list but they could not differentiate

False memory syndrome describes the “recovery” of vivid memories of events which did not take place. Affected adult patients accuse their parents of childhood sexual abuse which had been “forgotten” until triggered during therapy, and which those accused deny happening (Boakes, 1995). Thanks to the work of Freud, it has been determined that many of these false events are related to sexual fantasy or impulse. M.F. Mendez hypothesized that after false memories are generated, the subject accepts it because of an attenuation of an automatic, nonconscious sense of uncertainty mediated by the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (2010). False memory syndrome brought about through recovered memory therapy is the main cause in creating these false memories. The therapists sole purpose is to lead the patient into believing they were a victim of abuse so they can attribute that to their current problems. However it is because the patient is already going through some adverse life experience they are vulnerable and susceptible to suggestion, more so than a healthy individual. They then have a much easier time piecing together a fabricated memory, and are scarily confident in its accuracy. After a memory is stored in the hippocampus, it can persist for years: this is called memory consolidation. This is not to be

Recalling a memory is a much more complex process than simply playing back a recording; that is, the sensory information we take in about an event may not necessarily be remembered identically to the way in which it was experienced. The process of encoding and retrieving memories is complex and comprised of many factors. Not everything we perceive becomes stored as memory, and the information that does make it past our mind’s filter is often subject to distortion. The mind can be highly affected by suggestion, even to the point of forming “memories” of events which never took place, i.e. false memories.

Patients with PTSD secondary to combat109-113 and childhood abuse114,115 were found to have deficits in verbal declarative memory function based on neuropsychological testing. Studies, using a variety of measures (including the Wechsler Memory Scale, the visual and verbal components of the Selective Reminding Test, the Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Paired Associate Recall, the California Verbal New Learning Test, and the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test), found specific deficits in verbal declarative memory function, with a relative sparing of visual memory and IQ.109-113,115-124