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A specific attentional bias in panic disorder?
Author(s) -
De Cort Klara,
Hermans Dirk,
Spruyt Adriaan,
Griez Eric,
Schruers Koen
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
depression and anxiety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.634
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6394
pISSN - 1091-4269
DOI - 10.1002/da.20376
Subject(s) - panic disorder , psychology , panic , attentional bias , clinical psychology , cognitive psychology , psychiatry , anxiety
According to cognitive theories, panic patients are assumed to have an attentional bias toward bodily sensations. To date, there is only some indirect evidence of such a bias measured by an emotional Stroop task. Moreover, the content and disorder specificity of this bias is rather unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the specificity of attentional bias in patients with panic disorder (PD). Patients with PD ( n =32), patients with mixed anxiety disorders ( n =25), and a healthy control group ( n =26) performed an emotional Stroop task with three word types: panic threat, general threat, and neutral. There were no differences on reaction times between the different groups, or on the different word types. Despite the generally accepted existence of attentional biases in anxiety disorders, we found no evidence of a specific attentional bias in patients with PD. Depression and Anxiety, 2008. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.