Behaviour research and therapy
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The effects of cued UCS rehearsal on responses to a mildly painful CS previously paired with a highly painful UCS were investigated. Following CS pretest and CS-UCS pairings, subjects either mentally rehearsed the UCS (condition 1), received the real UCS (condition 2), mentally rehearsed an unrelated painful experience (condition 3), or waited (condition 4). In a fifth condition, subjects received CS and UCS unpaired before engaging in UCS rehearsal. ⋯ Incubation of electrodermal responses was related to low self-consciousness and the combination of low self-consciousness and high trait anxiety. Trait anxiety and worry proneness per se did not relate to incubation. The findings suggest that worry-like processes can have functional values like reducing pain impact, and cast doubt upon the contention that UCS rehearsal leads to an overall incubation of fear.
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A modified version of the probe detection task was used to investigate the effect of stimulus exposure duration on attentional bias for threat stimuli in a non-clinical sample of subjects. Stimulus duration was manipulated in order to examine different components of the anxiety-related attentional bias, i.e. initial orienting versus maintenance of attention to threat. ⋯ This bias was not significantly affected by the exposure duration of the word stimuli. Thus, the attentional bias for threat does not appear to vary significantly over this range (100-1,500 msec) in non-clinical anxiety; it is recommended that the time course of the attentional bias be investigated further in clinical anxiety.
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Recent research suggests that it is possible to differentiate preconscious and strategic processing of threat stimuli using the Stroop colour naming task. masked and unmasked versions of the Stroop were administered to spider phobics, non-phobic controls and phobics whose fears did not include that of spiders. Colour naming times were recorded to neutral words, spider words and words whose emotionality was comparable to spider words. ⋯ Further analysis of the data indicated that this result was unlikely to be an effect of word emotionality and was specific to threat. Although the results are broadly consistent with information processing approaches to the understanding of anxiety, the value of this type of paradigm to the understanding of clinical anxiety is questionable.
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The psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) were evaluated in two studies using large clinical samples (N = 437 and N = 241). In Study 1, the three scales comprising the DASS were shown to have excellent internal consistency and temporal stability. An exploratory factor analysis (principal components extraction with varimax rotation) yielded a solution that was highly consistent with the factor structure previously found in nonclinical samples. ⋯ In Study 2, the conceptual and empirical latent structure of the DASS was upheld by findings from confirmatory factor analysis. Correlations between the DASS and other questionnaire and clinical rating measures of anxiety, depression, and negative affect demonstrated the convergent and discriminant validity of the scales. In addition to supporting the psychometric properties of the DASS in clinical anxiety and mood disorders samples, the results are discussed in the context of current conceptualizations of the distinctive and overlapping features of anxiety and depression.
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Comparative Study
The assessment of anxiety and fear in persons with chronic pain: a comparison of instruments.
Instruments used to study anxiety and fear responses related to chronic pain vary along two dimensions. They differ in terms of the stimuli or situations that evoke anxiety responses and the types of anxiety responses included (i.e. cognitive, motoric, and physiological). This study examined relations of variables from the Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale (PASS), the Fear-Avoidance Beliefs Questionnaire (FABQ), the Fear of Pain Questionnaire (FPQ), and the trait version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) with variables related to pain severity, perceived disability, and pain behavior. ⋯ Regression analyses showed that empirically selected subsets of the anxiety variables predict from 16 to 54% of the variance in pain severity, disability and pain behavior. Also, assessment of multiple anxiety response types appears useful for understanding pain behavior and disability. Further study of fear and anxiety responses of persons with pain is likely to benefit from careful selection of measures dependent on the stimulus and response dimensions assessed.