Habituation of subjective anxiety during flooding in imagery.
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Agoraphobia↗
Biomedical subjects
E B Foa
Publications and source records attributed to E B Foa.
Is horror a necessary component fo flooding (implosion)?
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Behavior Therapy↗
Changes in self-perception following short-term psychiatric treatment.
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Emotions↗
Worries and obsessions in individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder with and without comorbid generalized anxiety disorder.
Participants from the DSM-IV field trial for OCD (N = 381) were divided into two groups based on the SCID interview: those who met current criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) but not generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and those who met current diagnostic criteria for both. The groups were compared on their severity of obsessive and compulsive symptoms, as well as on the percent of individuals who reported excessive worry concerning everyday issues (e.g. health, finances). The comorbidity rate was 20%. While the presence of GAD did not elevate OCD symptoms per se, it was associated with more pathological responsibility and indecisiveness. Excessive worries were significantly more common in those with comorbid OCD and GAD. The relationship between obsessions and worries is discussed.
Adult↗
Memory bias in generalized social phobia: remembering negative emotional expressions.
In two experiments, the authors examined memory for facial emotional expressions in patients with generalized social phobia (GSP) and in nonanxious control (NAC) participants. Three main questions were addressed. First, do patients with GSP differ from NAC participants in their overall memory for facial expressions? Second, do patients with GSP exhibit a memory bias for negative versus nonnegative expressions? Third, if such a bias exists, is it specific to angry expressions? The results of both experiments indicated that patients with GSP have better memory for all facial expressions than do NAC participants. Results of experiment 2 suggest that patients with GSP exhibit enhanced recognition for negative compared with nonnegative expressions; in contrast, NAC participants did not exhibit such enhancement. Results concerning specificity were equivocal. The importance of examining cognitive biases in patients with GSP via the use of facial expression is discussed.
Adult↗
Inflated perception of responsibility for harm in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
The present study examined the proposition that inflated responsibility is implicated in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Compared to non-anxious control participants (NACs), and an anxious control group with generalized social phobia (GSPs), we predicted that individuals with OCD (OCs) would exhibit a greater urge to rectify situations involving potential risk, would report more distress upon leaving such situations unrectified, and would feel more personal responsibility if the unrectified situations resulted in harm. Fifteen OCs, 15 NACs, and 15 GSPs completed the Obsessive Compulsive Responsibility Scale (OCRS), which included low-risk, OC-relevant, and high-risk situations. Compared to NACs and GSPs, OCs reported more urges, distress, and responsibility in low-risk and OC-relevant situations; no group differences were detected on high-risk situations. GSPs and NACs differed only in their responsibility in OC-relevant situations, with GSPs reporting higher responsibility than controls. Our results suggest that compared to OCs, NACs, and GSPs can better differentiate between situations that merit concern and ones that do not.
Adult↗
Fixity of belief, perceptual aberration, and magical ideation in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Clinicians and researchers have pondered the intersection of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and psychosis. We examined the records of 395 individuals seeking treatment for OCD and classified participants according to their most frequent or distressing obsession and compulsion. All participants completed measures of fixity of belief, perceptual distortions, magical ideation, and psychotic symptoms. Results indicated that individuals who reported fear of harming self or others via overwhelming impulse or by mistake, and those with religious obsessions, had poorer insight and more perceptual distortions and magical ideation than did individuals with other types of obsessions. These results did not appear to reflect mere differences in OCD severity. Results are discussed in light of previous findings showing that psychotic-like symptoms are associated with attenuated treatment outcome in OCD. More research is needed to assess the absolute magnitude of psychotic-like features in OCD patients with impulse/mistake and religious obsessions and to examine whether these features interfere with standard cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Adult↗
Implicit and explicit memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
We examined implicit and explicit memory in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) patients an in non-patients. Implicit memory was measured by the effect of prior presentation on ratings of noise volume. Explicit memory was examined via a recognition task. We also investigated participants' confidence in the accuracy of their recognition. OCD patients rated noise accompanying contamination and neutral sentences as louder than did non-patients. Both groups rated noise accompanying contamination sentences as louder than noise accompanying neutral sentences. Also, both groups were less confident in their recognition of new contamination sentences compared to new neutral sentences, but this difference was less pronounced in the OCD group. The findings are discussed in light of previous research on memory in anxiety disordered individuals.
Adult↗
Health concerns in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In the present study, individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) who also had excessive health concerns (n = 56) were compared with OCD individuals without such concerns (n = 343) regarding their OCD symptom severity, types of obsessions and compulsions, insight into the irrationality of their obsessions, and prevalence of generalized anxiety disorder. While the presence of health concerns did not affect the severity of OCD symptoms, the groups differed with respect to the types of symptoms displayed: those with health concerns had more somatic and harm obsessions, and checking compulsions: whereas those without such concerns had more contamination obsessions and washing compulsions. The insight of both groups ranged from poor to excellent, yet the number of individuals with poor insight was greater among those with health concerns than those without. Generalized anxiety disorder was also more prevalent among OCD individuals with excessive health concerns.
Adult↗
Family distress and involvement in relatives of obsessive-compulsive disorder patients.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) affects the lives of patients as well as their relatives. Calvocoressi et al. (1995) suggested that accommodation (e.g., participating in the patient's rituals) by relatives of patients with OCD was related to global family dysfunction and distress. These investigators did not, however, examine the relationship between family accommodation and severity of the patients' OCD symptoms. In the present study we examined the relationship between families' reactions to the patient's illness (e.g., assistance with rituals, modification of family routine, rejection of the patient, etc.) and the patient's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS) score and Hamilton Depression scale ratings. We also examined the effects of family accommodation and rejection on treatment outcome. Results revealed that family distress, accommodation, and rejection were related to depression and anxiety in the family members, but not to severity of the patients' OCD. At posttreatment, family accommodation and modification of routine was related to the severity of patients' OCD. These results remained significant when the effect of pretreatment OCD severity was partialled out.
Adolescent↗
Evaluation of the German version of the PTSD Symptom Scale (PSS).
The psychometric properties of the PTSD Symptom Scale (PSS) were evaluated in a clinical sample of severely injured in-patients after a traffic accident (n = 123). The PSS contains 17 items which were derived from the DSM-III-R criteria of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The results indicate that the PSS has satisfactory reliability and validity (internal and external). The results are in correspondence with the results of Foa et al. using a sample of rape and non-sexual-assault patients.
Accidents, Traffic↗