AB1595-HPR RECALLING PATTERNS OF EMOTIONALLY NEGATIVE AND POSITIVE LIFE EVENTS IN RHEUMATOID ARTHRITIS PATIENTS
Authors: F. Balikó, O. Vincze, M. Pohárnok, K. Csókási
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2024)

<h3>Background:</h3> Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients often face psychological challenges due to chronic pain and disability (Dominick et al., 2004; Sturgeon et.al., 2016). By exploring the link between autobiographical narratives and recollection patterns, focusing on the role of emotions and temporal perspectives in psychological adaptation we can gain new insights into their experiences. Positive and negative life events impact life stories differently, previous studies suggested that the intensity of associated emotions, rather than their valence, influences memory characteristics (Pascuzzi &amp; Smorti, 2017). Temporal perspectives reveal crucial psychological aspects of the narrator. A retrospective viewpoint indicates detachment, closure, and a coherent, non-conflictual identity state. Conversely, vividly reliving a negative past episode, using grammatical forms suggesting ongoing, unresolved issues, implies a more problematic identity state (Polya et al., 2015). This study explores nuanced shifts in narrative perspective to understand how RA patients process and construct memories of positive and negative life events and how it might connect to their well-being. <h3>Objectives:</h3> Considering the increased prevalence of pessimism, helplessness, and rumination in RA patients, we aimed to explore how their encounter with positive events is related to their processing of negative life events. In addition, we focused on identifying specific narrative patterns in high and low-point life story episodes based on temporal perspectives within a sample of 60 RA patients. <h3>Methods:</h3> By using the episodic interview technique, 60 RA patients (9 male, 51 female; age min: 37, max: 79, mean: 61,0, SD:11,0) recalled their memories of prominent life events, conveyed through brief narratives in a conversational interview format. The semi-structured interview texts were analyzed with a narrative categorical content analysis algorithm (NarrCat). NarrCat identifies and calculates narrative markers of narrative psychological categories, such as negation or the narrator's temporal perspective. We formed two clusters of participants based on the temporal perspectives they used in high-point episodes, resulting in a retrospective group of 25 and a re-experiencing group of 35 individuals. The mental and physical state of the sample was also assessed by using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Health Assessment Questionnaire. <h3>Results:</h3> In the data analysis, we compared the frequencies of several narrative markers of the low- and high-point episodes of the Retrospective and the Re-experiencing groups and compared the differences in their well-being and subjective evaluation of physical impairment. According to the results of Mann-Whitney U Test, the Re-experiencing group showed in low-point episodes heightened emotional frequency (total: U(58)=280, p‹0,05; positive: U(58)=328, p‹0,05; negative: U(58)=278, p‹0,05), used more psychological perspectives (U(58)=223, p‹0,01) and exhibited a tendency towards denial. However, no significant difference emerged between the Retrospective and Re-experience groups regarding positive emotions or any other narrative feature I high-point stories. The Retrospective and Re-experiencing groups did not differ in psychological state (anxiety, depressive symptoms) or physical impairment, leaving the adaptability of the re-experiencing strategy unclear. <h3>Conclusion:</h3> Individuals vividly recalling positive life events tend to dig deeper into negative memories, suggesting that despite intense recollection, high-point memories are less emotionally involved and salient. The re-experiencing group's elevated positive emotion frequency during low-point episodes may arise from emotion regulation triggered by negative memories, but it is also possible that maladaptive characteristics may underlie it (emotional lability, pessimism, or rumination). However, current results lack correlation with measured outcomes (HADS and HAQ questionnaires), necessitating further research to determine the potential for guided memory recall in RA patients as a basis for psychosocial interventions. <h3>REFERENCES:</h3> <b>NIL.</b> <h3>Acknowledgements:</h3> <b>NIL.</b> <h3>Disclosure of Interests:</h3> <b>None declared.</b>