title: Relationships between symptoms of depression and anxiety and dysfunctional beliefs about achievement and attachment.
abstract: Psychiatric outpatients (N = 293) provided data to test the symptom specificity and final common pathway hypotheses about symptoms of depression and anxiety. The symptom specificity hypothesis predicts that the symptoms reported by a depressed or anxious patient depend on the dysfunctional beliefs he or she endorses. In contrast, the final common pathway hypothesis predicts that symptoms are unrelated to the types of beliefs the patient endorses. These hypotheses were tested in the context of theories that emphasize the importance of dysfunctional beliefs about achievement and attachment. Only limited support for the symptom specificity hypothesis was obtained; support was strongest for the link between attachment beliefs and anxiety symptoms. Relationships between symptoms and dysfunctional beliefs did not depend on psychiatric diagnosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco.
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Persons
authors.forename: D D
authors.initials: DD
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Perloff
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Miranda
mesh_terms: D000124:Achievement; D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D001290:Attitude; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009769:Object Attachment; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011574:Psychoanalytic Theory; D012649:Self Concept