In this work, we study a high order derivative in time problem. First, we show that there exists a sequence of elements of the spectrum which tends to infinity and therefore, it is ill posed. Then, we prove the uniqueness of solutions for this problem by adapting the logarithmic arguments to this situation. Finally, the results are applied to the backward in time problem for the generalized linear Burgers’ fluid, a couple of heat conduction problems and a viscoelastic model.