Selective processing of emotional information in obsessive compulsive disorder.
Three possible explanations for attentional bias effects in anxious subjects have been formulated: the threat-relatedness hypothesis, the emotionality hypothesis and the concern-relatedness hypothesis. In order to investigate these three hypotheses, an experiment was carried out with 33 obsessive compulsive (OC) patients and 29 normal controls. Both groups colour-named a Stroop card with 5 word sets: neutral words and 4 emotional word sets (a 2 x 2 matrix of words, related/unrelated to obsessive compulsive disorder and positively/negatively valenced). In line with previous studies, OC patients selectively attended to negative OC-related cues; this supports the threat-relatedness hypothesis. Although the set-up of the experiment was similar to the Mathews and Klug (1993, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 57-62) study, no evidence was found for the concern-relatedness hypothesis, i.e. the OC patients did not show an attentional bias for positive OC-related words. Two possible reasons for these contradicting findings are discussed.
Lavy
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E
Limburg University, Department of Mental Health Sciences/Experimental Psychopathology, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
van Oppen
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P
van den Hout
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M
D001143:Arousal; D001288:Attention; D003118:Color Perception; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D004644:Emotions; D006801:Humans; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011340:Problem Solving; D011930:Reaction Time; D012660:Semantics