Health anxiety and attentional bias: The time course of vigilance and avoidance in light of pictorial illness information

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

Volumn 25, Issue 8, 2011, Pages 1131-1138

  Jasper, Fabian ^a   Witthöft, Michael ^a  

^a JOHANNES GUTENBERG UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

Author keywords

Anxiety sensitivity; Attentional bias; Dot probe task; Health anxiety; Hypochondriasis; Selective attention

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ALERTNESS; ANXIETY; ARTICLE; ASSOCIATION; CONTROLLED STUDY; EXPOSURE; FEMALE; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; MALE; NORMAL HUMAN; ORIENTATION; PATTERN RECOGNITION; SELECTIVE ATTENTION; SELF REPORT; TASK PERFORMANCE; THREAT; VISUAL STIMULATION;

ADULT; ANXIETY; ATTENTION; ATTITUDE TO HEALTH; FEAR; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS; SELF REPORT;

EID: 80054701926     PISSN: 08876185     EISSN: 18737897     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.08.004     Document Type: Article

References (86)

1. Abramowitz J.S., Schwartz S.A., Whiteside S.P. A contemporary conceptual model of hypochondriasis. Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2002, 77:1323-1330.
2. Amir N., Beard C., Burns M., Bomyea J. Attention modification program in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 2009, 118:28-33.
3. Asmundson G.J.G., Carleton R.N., Ekong J. Dot-probe evaluation of selective attentional processing of pain cues in patients with chronic headaches. Pain 2005, 114:250-256.
4. Bahill A.R., Bahill K.A., Clark M.R., Lawrence S. Closely spaced saccades. Investigative Ophthalmology 1975, 14:317-321.
5. Bar-Haim Y., Lamy D., Pergamin L., Bakermans-Kranenburg M.J., van Ijzendoorn M.H. Threat related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: a meta-analytic study. Psychological Bulletin 2007, 133:1-24.
6. Barsky A.J. Somatosensory amplification and hypochondriasis. Hypochondriasis: modern perspectives on an ancient malady 2001, 223-248. University Press, Oxford. V. Starcevic, D.R. Lipsitt (Eds.).
7. Barsky A.J., Wyshak G., Klerman G.L. The somatosensory amplification scale and its relationship to hypochondriasis. Journal Psychiatric Research 1990, 24:323-334.
8. Beck A.T. Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders 1976, International Universities, New York.
9. Bradley B.P., Mogg K., Millar N.H. Covert and overt orienting of attention to emotional faces in anxiety. Cognition and Emotion 2000, 14:789-808.
10. Brown H.D, Kosslyn S.M., Delamater B., Fama J., Barksy A.J. Perceptual and memory biases for health-related information in hypochondriacal individuals. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 1999, 47:67-78.
11. Cisler J.M., Bacon A.K., Williams N.L. Phenomenological characteristics of attentional biases towards threat: a critical review. Cognitive Therapy Research 2009, 33:221-234.
12. Cisler J.M., Koster E.H.W. Mechanisms of attentional biases towards threat in anxiety disorders: an integrative review. Clinical Psychology Review 2010, 30:203-216.
13. Cohen J. The cost of dichotomization. Applied Psychological Measurement 1983, 7:249-253.
14. Cohen J. A power primer. Psychological Bulletin 1992, 112:155-159.
15. Cohen J., Cohen P., West S.G., Aiken L.S. Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences 2003, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, NJ. 3rd ed.
16. Cooper R.M., Langton S.R.-H. Attentional bias to angry faces using the dot-probe task? It depends when you look for it. Behaviour Research and Therapy 2006, 44:1321-1329.
17. Edgell S.E., Noon S.M. Effect of violation of normality on the t test of the correlation coefficient. Psychological Bulletin 1984, 95:576-583.
18. Ferguson E. A taxometric analysis of health anxiety. Psychological Medicine 2008, 39:277-285.
19. Fox E., Russo R., Dutton K. Attentional bias for threat: evidence for delayed disengagement from emotional faces. Cognition and Emotion 2002, 16:355-379.
20. Gick M., McLeod C., Hulhan D. Absorption, social desirability, and symptoms in a behavioral medicine population. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 1997, 185:454-458.
21. Gulliksen H. Theory of mental tests 1950, John Wiley and Sons, New Work.
22. Hiller W., Rief W. Internationale Skalen für Hypochondrie. Deutschsprachige Adaptation des Whiteley-Index (WI) und der Illness Attitude Scales (IAS) 2004, Huber, Bern.
23. Humphreys L.G. Research on individual differences requires correlational analysis, not ANOVA. Intelligence 1978, 2:1-5.
24. Hunt C., Keogh E., French C.C. Anxiety sensitivity: the role of conscious awareness and selective attentional bias to physical threat. Emotion 2006, 6:418-428.
25. INQUISIT 2.06 Computer software 2008, Millisecond Software, Seattle, WA.
26. Kellner R. Manual of the IAS (Illness Attitude Scales) 1981, University of New Mexico, NM, Mimeographed, Albuquerque.
27. Kemper C.J., Ziegler M., Taylor S. Psychometric properties of the German version of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index 3. Diagnostica 2009, 55:223-233.
28. Keogh E., Dillon C., Georgiou G., Hunt C. Selective attentional biases for physical-threat in physical anxiety sensitivity. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 2001, 15:299-315.
29. Körber S., Frieser D., Steinbrecher N., Hiller W. Classification characteristics of the Patient Health Questionnaire-15 for screening somatoform disorders in a primary care setting. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 2011, Advance online publication. 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2011.01.006.
30. Koster E.H.W., Crombez G., Verschuere B., Houwer J.-D. Selective attention to threat in the dot probe paradigm: differentiating vigilance and difficulty to disengage. Behaviour Research and Therapy 2004, 42:1183-1192.
31. Koster E.H.W., Crombez G., Verschuere B., Houwer J.-D. Attention to threat in anxiety-prone individuals: mechanisms underlying attentional bias. Cognitive Therapy Research 2006, 30:635-643.
32. Kroenke K., Spitzer R.L., DeGruy F.V., Swindle R. A symptom checklist to screen for somatoform disorders in primary care. Psychosomatics 1998, 3:263-272.
33. Kroenke K., Spitzer R.L., Williams J.B.W. Validity of a brief depression severity measure. Journal of General Internal Medicine 2001, 16:606-613.
34. Lang P.J., Bradley M.M., Cuthbert B.N. International affective picture system (IAPS): affective ratings of pictures and instruction manual. Technical Report A-8 2008, The Center for Research in Psychophysiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
35. Lecci L., Cohen D.J. Perceptual consequences of an illness-concern induction and its relation to hypochondriacal tendencies. Health Psychology 2002, 21:147-156.
36. Lecci L., Cohen D.J. Altered processing of health threat words as a function of hypochondriacal tendencies and experimentally manipulated control beliefs. Cognition and Emotion 2007, 21:211-224.
37. Lees A., Mogg K., Bradley B.P. Health anxiety, anxiety sensitivity, and attentional biases for pictorial and linguistic health-threat cues. Cognition and Emotion 2005, 19:453-462.
38. Lilienfeld S.O. The relation of anxiety sensitivity to higher and lower order personality dimensions: implications for the etiology of panic attacks. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1997, 106:539-544.
39. Loehlin J.C. Latent variable models 2004, LEA, Mahwah. 4th ed.
40. Longley S.L., Broman-Fulks J.J., Calmari J.E., Noyes R., Wade M., Orlando C.M. A taxomatric study of hypochondriasis symptoms. Behavioral Therapy 2010, Advance online publication. 10.1016/j.beth.2010.02.002.
41. Longley S.J., Watson D., Noyes R. Assessment of the hypochondriasis domain: the multidimensional inventors of hypochondriacal traits (MIG). Psychological Assessment 2005, 17:3-14.
42. MacCallum R.C., Zhang S., Preacher K.J., Rucker D.D. On the practice of dichotomization of quantitative variables. Psychological Methods 2002, 7:19-40.
43. MacLeod C., Mathews A., Tata P. Attentional bias in emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1986, 95:15-20.
44. Marcus D.K., Gurley J.R., Marchi M.M., Bauer C. Cognitive and perceptual variables in hypochondriasis and health anxiety: a systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review 2007, 27:127-139.
45. McClure E.B., Lilienfeld S.O. The dark side of absorption: empirical associations between experiential response style and hypochondriacal concerns. Journal of Research in Personality 2002, 36:573-579.
46. McPeek R.M., Keller E.L., Nakayama K. Concurrent processing of saccades. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 1999, 22:691-692.
47. Mogg K., Bradley B.P. Selective orienting of attention to masked threat faces in social anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy 2002, 40:1403-1414.
48. Mogg K., Bradley B.P., Miles F., Dixon R. Time course of attentional bias for threat scenes: testing the vigilance-avoidance hypothesis. Cognition & Emotion 2004, 18:689-700.
49. Mogg K., Miller N., Bradley B.P. Biases in eye movements to threatening facial expressions in generalized anxiety disorder and depressive disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 2000, 4:695-704.
50. Muse K., McManus F., Hackmann A., Williams M., Williams M. Intrusive imagery in severe health anxiety: prevalence, nature and links with memories and maintenance cycles. Behavioral Research and Therapy 2010, 48:792-798.
51. Olatunji B.O., Deacon B.J., Abramowitz J.S. Is hypochondriasis and anxiety disorder?. The British Journal of Psychiatry 2009, 194:481-482.
52. Öhman A., Flykt A., Esteves F. Emotion drives attention: detecting the snake in the grass. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 2001, 130:466-478.
53. Otto M.W., Demopulos C.M., McLean N.E., Pollack M.H., Fava M. Additional findings of the association between anxiety sensitivity and hypochondriacal concerns: examination of patients with major depression. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 1998, 12:225-232.
54. Otto M.W., Pollack M.H., Sachs G.S., Rosenbaum J.F. Hypochondriacal concerns, anxiety sensitivity and panic disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 1992, 6:93-104.
55. Papageorgiou C., Wells A. Effects of attention training on hypochondriasis: a brief case series. Psychological Medicine 1998, 28:193-200.
56. Perneger T.V. What's wrong with Bonferroni adjustments. British Medical Journal 1998, 316:1236-1238.
57. Pernice R.E., van der Veer K., Ommundsen R., Larsen K. On the use of student samples for scale construction. Psychological Reports 2008, 102:459-464.
58. Pilowsky I. Dimensions of hypochondriasis. British Journal of Psychiatry 1967, 113:34-42.
59. Posner M.I. Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 1980, 32:3-25.
60. Preacher K.J., MacCallum R.C., Rucker D.D., Nicewander W.A. Use of extreme groups approach: a critical reexamination and new recommendations. Psychological Methods 2005, 10:178-192.
61. Reiss S. Theoretical perspectives on the fear of anxiety. Clinical Psychology Review 1987, 7:585-596.
62. Ritz T., Dahme B. The Absorption Scale: basic concept, psychometric properties, and dimensions of a German adaptation. Diagnostica 1995, 41:53-61.
63. Roelofs J., Peters M.L., van der Zijden M., Thielen F.G., Vlaeyen J.W. Selective attention and avoidance of pain-related stimuli: a dot-probe evaluation in a pain-free population. Journal of Pain 2003, 4:322-328.
64. Rothman K.J. No adjustments are needed for multiple comparisons. Epidemiology 1990, 1:43-46.
65. Salemink E., van den Hout M.A., Kindt M. Selective attention and threat: quick orienting versus slow disengagement and two versions of the dot probe task. Behaviour Research and Therapy 2007, 45:607-615.
66. Salkovskis P.M., Warwick H.M.C. Meaning, misinterpretations, and medicine: a cognitive-behavioral approach to understanding health anxiety and hypochondriasis. Hypochondriasis: modern perspectives on an ancient malady 2001, 202-222. University Press, Oxford. V. Starcevic, D.R. Lipsitt (Eds.).
67. Savitz D.A., Olshan A.F. Multiple comparisons and related issues in the interpretation of epidemiologic data. American Journal of Epidemiology 1995, 142:904-908.
68. Schmidt N.B., Richey J.A., Buckner J.D., Timpano K.R. Attention training for generalized social anxiety disorder. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 2009, 118:5-14.
69. Schmukle S.C. Unreliability of the dot probe task. European Journal of Personality 2005, 19:595-605.
70. Schwarz D., Witthöft M., Bailer J. Critical testing of the factorial structure and construct validity of the Whiteley-Index-an established screening instrument to assess hypochondriasis. Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie 2007, 36:128-136.
71. Staugaard S.R. Reliability of two versions of the dot-probe task using photographic faces. Psychology Science Quarterly 2009, 51:339-350.
72. Stevens, S., Rist, F., & Gerlach, A. L. (). Eye movement assessment in individuals with social phobia: differential usefulness for varying presentation times? Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.11.001.
73. Stewart S.H., Sherry S.B., Watt M.C., Grant V.V., Hadjistavropoulos H.D. Psychometric evaluation of the multidimensional inventory of hypochondriacal traits: factor structure and relationship to anxiety sensitivity. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An International Quarterly 2008, 22:97-114.
74. Taylor S., Zvolensky M.J., Cox B.J., Deacon B., Heimberg R.G., Ledley D.R., et al. Robust dimensions of anxiety sensitivity: development and initial validation of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3. Psychological Assessment 2007, 19:176-188.
75. Tellegen A., Atkinson G. Openness to absorbing and self-altering experiences (" absorption"), a trait related to hypnotic susceptibility. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 1974, 83:268-277.
76. Warwick H.M.C. A cognitive-behavioral approach to hypochondriasis and health anxiety. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 1989, 33:705-711.
77. Warwick H.M.C., Salkovskis P.M. Hypochondriasis. Behavioral Research and Therapy 1990, 28:105-117.
78. Watten R.G., Vassend O., Myhrer T., Syversen J.-L. Personality factors and somatic symptoms. European Journal of Personality 1997, 11:57-68.
79. Weierich M.R., Treat T.A., Hollingworth A. Theories and measurement of visual attentional processing in anxiety. Cognition and Emotion 2008, 22:985-1018.
80. Wells A., Hackmann A. Imagery and core beliefs in health anxiety: content and origins. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy 1993, 21:265-273.
81. Williams P.G. The psychopathology of self-assessed health: a cognitive approach to health anxiety and hypochondriasis. Cognitive Therapy and Research 2004, 28:629-644.
82. Williams R.H., Zimmerman D.W. The reliability of difference scores when errors are correlated. Educational and Psychological Measurement 1974, 37:679-689.
83. Witthöft M., Haaf A., Rist F., Bailer J. German validation of the Multidimensional Inventory of Hypochondriacal Traits (MIHT). Diagnostica 2010, 56:2-12.
84. Witthöft M., Rist F., Bailer J. Enhanced early emotional intrusion effects and proportional habituation of threat response for symptom and illness words in college students with elevated health anxiety. Cognitive Therapy Research 2008, 32:818-842.
85. Young L.R., Stark L. Variable feedback experiments testing a sampled-data model for eye tracking movements. IEEE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics 1963, 4:38-51.
86. Zimmerman D.W. Tests of significance of correlation coefficients in the absence of bivariate normal populations. The Journal of experimental Education 1986, 54:223-227.