Biomedical subjects

P Muris

Publications and source records attributed to P Muris.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed2001

Autobiographical memories become less vivid and emotional after eye movements.

OBJECTIVES: To test (1) whether eye movements during retrieval of emotional memories are followed by less vividness and less emotionality of future recollections, (2) whether this effect, if present, is stronger than the effects of a control activity (finger tapping), (3) whether the alleged effects of tapping and eye movements are stronger than a no-movement, control condition (mere imagery), (4) whether reductions in vividness and emotionality after eye movements (and finger tapping) are specific to negative memories or also occur in the case of positive memories. METHOD: Sixty healthy volunteers recalled either positive or negative memories and scored the vividness and emotionality of the recollections. Next, memories were recalled whilst the participant was performing rapid eye movements, finger tapping, or not performing a dual task. Then participants were asked to recall the event again and to rate its vividness and emotionality. RESULTS: Compared to finger tapping and the no-dual-task condition, recollections after eye movements made future recollections less vivid. After eye movements, but not after the other interventions, negative memories became less negative, and positive memories became less positive. CONCLUSION: The findings show that eye movements not only reduce vividness and emotionality of memories during the eye moving, but also affect future recollections, during which no eye movements are made. Some theoretical explanations are discussed. As to clinical implications, it is suggested that if there is a role for eye-movement-based treatments, it is very limited.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

The revised version of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED-R): treatment sensitivity in an early intervention trial for childhood anxiety disorders.

OBJECTIVES: The revised version of the Screen for Childhood Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED-R) is a recently developed self-report questionnaire for measuring DSM-IV defined anxiety disorder symptoms in children. The current study examined the treatment sensitivity of the SCARED-R. METHODS: Thirty-six children (aged 8-13 years) who fulfilled the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and/or social phobia received either group or individual cognitive-behavioural treatment. Children completed the SCARED-R and a traditional measure of childhood anxiety, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children (STAIC), at three points in time: (1) 6 months before treatment (i.e. baseline), (2) pre-treatment, and (3) post-treatment. RESULTS: Results showed that children's SCARED-R and STAIC scores did not change from baseline to pre-treatment, but significantly declined from pre-treatment to post-treatment. An additional finding of the present study was that group and individual CBT were equally effective in reducing children's anxiety symptoms. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that the SCARED-R reliably taps treatment effects and thus should be regarded as a useful self-report index of childhood anxiety in clinical and research settings. Furthermore, the data support the notion that CBT should be generally regarded as an efficacious intervention for anxiety disordered children.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2001

Anxiety sensitivity and fear of pain in children.

Associations among scores on scales of anxiety sensitivity and trait anxiety and a fear of pain questionnaire were examined for 118 children. Analysis showed that anxiety sensitivity was positively and substantially related to fear of pain in the children. Furthermore, the data suggested anxiety sensitivity to be a better predictor of fear of pain than trait anxiety.

Anxiety Disorders↗

PubMed2001

Effects of an early intervention group program for anxious and depressed adolescents: a pilot study.

The Resourceful Adolescent Program is an early intervention program designed to enhance psychological resilience in adolescents with emotional problems. Eight adolescents with high anxious and/or depressive symptoms were treated with this 11-session group program. Treatment effects were examined by means of self-report questionnaires of anxiety, depression, and self-efficacy. Pre- and postintervention data showed reductions in anxiety and depression scores and a concomitant increase in adolescents' self-efficacy.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Monitoring, trait anxiety, and panic disorder symptomatology in normal subjects.

The present study investigated the relationship between a monitoring coping style and panic disorder symptoms in a normal sample (N = 77). The current study found some positive associations between monitoring, on the one hand, and fear of bodily sensations and agoraphobic avoidance, on the other hand. However, the observed correlations between monitoring and panic disorder symptoms were rather small. Moreover, monitoring was not found to be associated with the catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily sensations. As such misinterpretations are thought to play a crucial role in the etiology of panic disorder, the present findings do not support the idea that a monitoring coping style represents a risk factor for panic disorder.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed2000

Autobiographical memory and trauma in adolescents.

Several clinicians who work with traumatized children have noted that these children exhibit a poor autobiographical memory. The present study was a first attempt to subject this clinical impression to formal testing. Memory for autobiographical facts (i.e., semantic autobiographical memory) was assessed in 10 adolescents with an alleged history of trauma and 17 adolescents without such a background. Results suggest that traumatized adolescents, indeed, have more difficulty with semantic personal memory than non-traumatized adolescents. Implications of the present findings for future research on trauma and autobiographical memory in children and adolescents are discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

"Danger is lurking everywhere". the relation between anxiety and threat perception abnormalities in normal children.

The present study examined the relation between anxiety and depression and threat perception abnormalities. Children were exposed to stories describing social situations. Some of the stories were ambiguous (i.e., these stories contained information that could be interpreted as threatening) whereas other stories were non-threatening (i.e., these stories contained no obvious trace of threat). From children's responses to the stories, several threat perception indices were derived. Children's level of anxiety and depression were assessed by means of self-report questionnaires. Results indicated that high levels of anxiety were accompanied by a high frequency of threat perception, high ratings of threat, a high frequency of threatening interpretations, high levels of negative feelings and cognitions, and an early detection of threat. Interestingly, significant associations between anxiety and threat perception abnormalities were not only observed in response to ambiguous stories but also in relation to non-threatening scenarios. Furthermore, depression was also connected with threat perception distortions. Even when controlling for anxiety levels, depression remained significantly related to threat frequency, threat ratings, and threat thresholds.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

How serious are common childhood fears?

OBJECTIVE: The present study examined the clinical status of common childhood fears. METHOD: Fears of the 290 children aged 8 to 13 years were assessed and then their severity was explored by means of a structured diagnostic interview measuring anxiety disorders according to the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). RESULTS: Childhood fears reflect significant anxiety disorders in a substantial minority (i.e. 22.8%) of the children. CONCLUSIONS: In most children, childhood fears are part of the normal development. However, in some children, these fears reflect serious anxiety problems which interfere with daily routine.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Worry in children is related to perceived parental rearing and attachment.

In a sample of 159 primary school children, the relationship between perceived parental rearing behaviours and self-reported attachment style, on the one hand, and worry, on the other hand, was investigated. Children completed (a) the EMBU, a questionnaire measuring perceptions of parental rearing behaviours, (b) a single-item measure of attachment style, and (c) the Penn State Worry Questionnaire for Children (PSWQ-C), an index of severity of worrying. Results showed that parental rearing behaviours, in particular rejection and anxious rearing, were positively associated with worry. Thus, children who perceived their parents as more rejective and anxious reported higher levels of worry. Furthermore, self-reported attachment style appeared to be related to worry. More specifically, children who classified themselves as avoidantly or ambivalently attached displayed higher levels of worry than did children who classified themselves as securely attached. These findings are consistent with the notion that family environment factors such as parental rearing and attachment style contribute to the severity of anxiety symptoms in children.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Relationships between thought-action fusion, thought suppression and obsessive-compulsive symptoms: a structural equation modeling approach.

Research has shown that there are strong similarities in content between the obsessions and compulsions that characterize obsessive-compulsive disorder and nonclinical obsessions and compulsions. However, clinical and nonclinical obsessions and compulsions do differ with respect to characteristics like frequency, intensity, discomfort and elicited resistance. Two separate concepts have been invoked to explain how normal obsessions and compulsions may develop into clinical phenomena. First, it is suggested that thought-action fusion (TAF) contributes to obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Second, thought suppression may intensify obsessive-compulsive symptoms due to its paradoxical effect on intrusive thoughts. Although both phenomena have been found to contribute to obsessive-compulsive symptoms, possible interactions between these two have never been investigated. The current study explored how TAF and thought suppression interact in the development of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Undergraduate psychology students (N = 173) completed questionnaires pertaining to TAF, thought suppression and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Covariances between the scores on these questionnaires were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling. Results suggest that TAF triggers thought suppression, while thought suppression, in turn, promotes obsessive-compulsive symptoms.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

How serious are common childhood fears? II. The parent's point of view.

In an earlier study [Muris, P., Merckelbach, H., Mayer, B., & Prins, E. (1999). How serious are common childhood fears? Behaviour Research and Therapy, in press.], the severity of common childhood fears was explored by means of a structured child interview measuring specific phobias as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It was found that in a substantial minority of the children, specific fears reflect clinically significant phobias. The present study examined further the connection between childhood fears and specific phobias by interviewing children's parents. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children was administered to the parents of 160 children aged 4-12 years. In line with our previous study, results indicate that a sizable proportion of children (i.e. 17.6%) met the full criteria for specific phobia.

Child↗

PubMed2000

Paradoxical and less paradoxical effects of thought suppression: a critical review.

The process of consciously trying to avoid certain thoughts is referred to as thought suppression. Experimental research has documented that thought suppression may have paradoxical effects in that it leads to an increased frequency of the to-be-suppressed thought intruding consciousness. It has also been claimed that suppression has disruptive effects on episodic memory (i.e., a less paradoxical effect). The present article critically evaluates studies on the paradoxical and less paradoxical effects of thought suppression. More specifically, the issue of whether thought suppression plays a causative role in the development of various psychopathological symptoms is addressed. While laboratory studies have come up with highly consistent findings about the paradoxical effects of thought suppression, there is, as yet, little reason to believe that such effects are implicated in the etiology of obsessions, phobias, or other psychopathological conditions. Relatively little work has been done on the alleged memory effects of thought suppression. The studies that have examined this issue have found mixed results. Accordingly, the case for the amnestic power of thought suppression is weak. Alternative explanations and competing theories are discussed, and it is concluded that research concerned with the psychopathological consequences of thought suppression would benefit from development of better taxonomies of intrusive thinking and cognitive avoidance strategies.

Anxiety Disorders↗

PubMed2000

Dissociation, schizotypy, and fantasy proneness in undergraduate students.

Previous research has noted a robust correlation between dissociation and schizophrenia-like symptoms. One way to interpret the relationship between dissociation and schizotypy is to assume that it is an artifact of fantasy proneness. In the present study, 152 undergraduates completed measures of dissociation, schizotypy, and fantasy proneness. Dissociative tendencies were found to be related to the full range of schizotypal features. Regression analysis showed that schizotypy still contributed to the prediction of dissociative tendencies when variance related to fantasy proneness was extracted. These results indicate that the close connection between dissociation and schizotypy cannot be interpreted in terms of an artifact produced by fantasy proneness. Thus, the overlap between dissociation and schizotypy warrants systematic study.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Fears, worries, and scary dreams in 4- to 12-year-old children: their content, developmental pattern, and origins.

Investigated anxiety symptoms in normal school children 4 to 12 years of age (N = 190). The percentages of children reporting fears, worries, and scary dreams were 75.8, 67.4, and 80.5%, respectively, indicating that these anxiety symptoms are quite common among children. Inspection of the developmental pattern of these phenomena revealed that fears and scary dreams were common among 4- to 6-year-olds, became even more prominent in 7- to 9-year-olds, and then decreased in frequency in 10- to 12-year-olds. The developmental course of worry deviated from this pattern. This phenomenon was clearly more prevalent in older children (i.e., 7- to 12-year-olds) than in younger children. Furthermore, although the frequency of certain types of fears, worries, and dreams were found to change across age groups (e.g., the prevalence of fears and scary dreams pertaining to imaginary creatures decreased with age, whereas worry about test performance increased with age), the top intense fears, worries, and scary dreams remained relatively unchanged across age levels. An examination of the origins of these common anxiety phenomena showed that for fears and scary dreams, information was the most commonly reported pathway, whereas for worry, conditioning experiences were more prominent.

Anxiety↗

PubMed2000

Screening for trauma in children and adolescents: the validity of the Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale of the screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders.

Examined the validity of the Traumatic Stress Disorder scale of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), a recently developed self-report questionnaire measuring Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) defined anxiety disorders symptoms in children. A large sample of normal schoolchildren (N = 996) ages 7 to 19 years completed the SCARED. Children who scored high on the SCARED Traumatic Stress Disorder scale (i.e., trauma group; n = 43) and children who scored low on this scale (i.e., control group; n = 43) were then interviewed about their most aversive life event. In addition, children completed self-report questionnaires of traumatic experiences and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology. Results showed that children in the trauma group more frequently reported life events that independent judges considered to be 'potentially traumatic' than did control children. Furthermore, children in the trauma group reported having experienced more traumatic incidents and had higher scores on PTSD-related questionnaires compared with control children. Moreover, trauma group children more frequently fulfilled DSM-IV criteria for PTSD than did control children. The results of this study support the validity of the Traumatic Stress Disorder scale of the SCARED.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Threat perception bias in nonreferred, socially anxious children.

Investigated whether socially anxious children display a threat perception bias. A sample of 252 primary school children ages 8 to 13 years were exposed to ambiguous stories of social situations and instructed to find out as quickly as possible whether a story was scary. Furthermore, children were invited to tell how each story would end and to judge how they would feel when actually confronted with that situation. The main results can be summarized as follows. First, socially anxious children displayed lower thresholds for threat perception than control children. In other words, compared with control children, socially anxious children needed to hear fewer sentences of a story before deciding it was scary. Furthermore, socially anxious children more frequently perceived threat while listening to the stories than did control children. Finally, socially anxious children more often interpreted the stories as threatening and displayed higher levels of negative feelings and cognitions in relation to these stories compared with control children. These findings fit nicely in current information-processing theories of childhood anxiety. An additional aim of this study was to investigate the convergent validity of the social phobia scales of 2 recently developed self-report questionnaires for measuring anxiety disorder symptoms in children: the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale (Spence, 1998) and the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (Birmaher et al., 1997). Results indicated that the social phobia scale of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale and the extended social phobia scale of the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders correlated substantially with a specific measure of social anxiety, the Social Anxiety Scale for Children-Revised.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Associations of symptoms of anxiety disorders and self-reported behavior problems in normal children.

61 children, aged between 14 and 18 years, completed the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders, a scale of anxiety disorders symptoms, and the Youth Self-report, a measure of internalizing, i.e., emotional, and externalizing, i.e., behavioral, problems. Analysis showed that, with the exception of the Social Phobia and the Specific Phobia subscales, Screen total and subscale scores were significantly related to Internalizing problems (rs between .40 and .77). Thus, the more frequently children reported Anxiety Disorder symptoms, the more often they reported emotional problems. Furthermore, in particular, anxious-depressed problems as measured by the Youth Self-report were significantly associated with scores on Screen scales. These results further support the concurrent validity of the Screen.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2000

Self-reported automaticity and irrationality in spider phobia.

Spider phobic women (n = 39) and nonfearful controls (n = 41) completed a 20-item questionnaire measuring the extent to which they experience their fear reactions to spiders as automatic and irrational. For the phobic sample, therapy outcome data were also collected. Results suggest that spider phobics tend to view their attitude to spiders as irrational and in this respect, they do not differ from control subjects. Furthermore, compared to control subjects, phobics more often perceive their responses to spiders as automatic, i.e., not under intentional control. Contrary to expectation, no robust correlation was found between automaticity and irrationality. Interestingly, automaticity was not related to treatment outcome, while irrationality to some extent predicted therapy outcome (i.e., the more phobics experienced their fear as irrational, the more they profited from exposure treatment).

Adult↗