Preattentive bias for emotional information in panic disorder with agoraphobia.
A combined emotional Stroop and implicit memory (tachistoscopic identification) task with 3 types of words (panic-related, interpersonal threat, and neutral words) and 2 exposure conditions (subliminal, supraliminal) was administered to 35 patients with panic disorder and 35 age- and sex-matched controls. The patients showed Stroop interference for panic-related words both sub- and supraliminally and a similar but not equally robust effect on interpersonal threat words. On the tachistoscopic identification task, the patients identified more panic-related words than the controls did but showed no implicit memory bias effect. The patients' subliminal Stroop interference for panic-related words was found to correlate with trait anxiety and depression, although not with anxiety sensitivity.
Lundh
L G
LG
Department of Psychology, Stockholm University, Sweden. llh@psychology.su.se
Wikström
J
J
Westerlund
J
J
Ost
L G
LG
D000328:Adult; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology*; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*