title: A specific attentional bias in panic disorder?
abstract: According to cognitive theories, panic patients are assumed to have an attentional bias toward bodily sensations. To date, there is only some indirect evidence of such a bias measured by an emotional Stroop task. Moreover, the content and disorder specificity of this bias is rather unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the specificity of attentional bias in patients with panic disorder (PD). Patients with PD (n=32), patients with mixed anxiety disorders (n=25), and a healthy control group (n=26) performed an emotional Stroop task with three word types: panic threat, general threat, and neutral. There were no differences on reaction times between the different groups, or on the different word types. Despite the generally accepted existence of attentional biases in anxiety disorders, we found no evidence of a specific attentional bias in patients with PD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neurospyschology, Academic Anxiety Center, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands. klaradecort@skynet.be
authors.forename: Klara
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: De Cort
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hermans
authors.forename: Adriaan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spruyt
authors.forename: Eric
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Griez
authors.forename: Koen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schruers
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D001364:Awareness; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012649:Self Concept; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires