Emotion regulation difficulties associated with the experience of uncued panic attacks: evidence of experiential avoidance, emotional nonacceptance, and decreased emotional clarity.
Emotion regulation difficulties among nonclinical uncued panickers were examined in two studies. In Study 1, participants with a recent history of uncued panic attacks (n=91), compared to a nonpanic sample (n=91), reported significantly greater levels of experiential avoidance, lack of emotional acceptance, and lack of emotional clarity. In Study 2, a subset of uncued panickers and nonpanickers from Study 1 (n=17 per group) viewed positive and negative emotion-eliciting film clips. Despite comparable levels of self-reported distress and physiological arousal, panickers reported using more emotionally avoidant regulation strategies during both film clips. Panic participants also responded with greater negative emotion to the positive emotion-eliciting clip. Results are discussed in terms of their research and clinical implications.
Tull
Matthew T
MT
University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA, USA. mtull@psyc.umd.edu
Roemer
Lizabeth
L
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001290:Attitude; D001364:Awareness; D003463:Cues; D019260:Expressed Emotion; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D012927:Social Control, Informal; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires