Reconstructing alcohol-induced memory blackouts

Many people who drink alcohol have experienced a blackout; whereby they are unable to recall events that occurred during a period of intoxication. Following these blackout episodes individuals may attempt to reconstruct what happened to them. Blackouts therefore afford an excellent opportunity to study the strategies people use to reconstruct forgotten experiences. We conducted a survey of university students to explore how people choose to reconstruct blackouts, and the likely accuracy of these reconstructions. Our findings add to the growing research literature on people's strategies for validating their past experiences, and highlight the important role of external sources in the reconstruction process. The data show that people's desire to "fill in the blanks" can lead them to rely on rather unreliable sources, and may also encourage them to adopt weaker source-monitoring criteria. Indeed, in at least some cases reconstructing blackouts appears to lead to the development of false beliefs or memories. © 2011 Psychology Press.

Psychotic symptoms are associated with physical health problems independently of a mental disorder diagnosis:results from the WHO World Health Survey

This study explored whether physical health problems are related to psychotic symptoms independently of a mental disorder diagnosis. A total of 224,254 subjects recruited for the World Health Organization World Health Survey were subdivided into those with both a lifetime diagnosis of psychosis and at least one psychotic symptom in the 12 months prior to the evaluation, those with at least one psychotic symptom in the past 12 months but no lifetime diagnosis of psychosis, and those without psychotic symptoms in the past 12 months and without a lifetime diagnosis of psychosis. The three groups were compared for the presence of medical conditions, health problems, and access to health care. Medical conditions and health problems (angina, asthma, arthritis, tuberculosis, vision or hearing problems, mouth/teeth problems, alcohol consumption, smoking, and accidents), medication consumption, and hospital admissions (but not regular health care visits) were more frequent in individuals with psychotic symptoms but no psychosis diagnosis, compared to those with no symptoms and no diagnosis. The number of medical conditions increased with the number of psychotic symptoms. Given the sample analyzed, this trend seems to be independent from the socio-economic development of the country or the specific health care system.