title: Attention bias in children of patients with panic disorder.
abstract: Cognitive models of panic disorder have emphasized the role of cognitive distortions in the maintenance of this disorder. Several studies have produced results consistent with this hypothesis, but it is still unclear whether cognitive biases precede anxiety disorders or whether they are a consequence of the disorder. In the present study, we compared children of individuals with panic disorder, children of individuals with animal phobia, and children of normal controls with respect to attentional bias with an emotional Stroop task, which included three types of words: panic-relevant, animal phobia-relevant, and neutral words. Our results revealed that children of panic patients did not show an attentional bias for panic-relevant stimuli. Results will be discussed in the context of theoretical models explaining the etiological factor of cognitive biases for the development of anxiety disorders.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. silvia.schneider@unibas.ch
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schneider
authors.forename: Suzan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Unnewehr
authors.forename: Tina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: In-Albon
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Margraf
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D003118:Color Perception; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D004193:Discrimination Learning; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D010469:Perceptual Distortion; D010555:Personality Inventory; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D012660:Semantics