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| Research article summary (published 30 Dec 2001): |
Thought suppression: specificity in agoraphobia versus broad impairment in social phobia?
Full Abstract
The paradoxical effects of intended thought suppression have been linked to psychological disorders, specifically anxiety disorders. So far, the evidence for thought suppression playing a major role in the disorder is mixed. One important issue is whether thought suppression is impaired only for thoughts related to the disorder, or if the ability for mental control is generally impaired in anxiety patients. This study compared groups of agoraphobics and social phobics with a healthy control group. All subjects were asked to suppress two topics related to the respective central fear of the two disorders and one nonspecific topic. We found a rather specific deficit in thought suppression for the agoraphobics; that is, when compared with the control group, we found the biggest differences for the agoraphobic fear. The social phobics seem to be characterized by a general impairment of mental control, affecting specific and nonspecific stimuli. In addition, among several psychopathological variables, social anxiety proved to be the strongest predictor for problems with thought suppression. Taken together, there are several indicators that generally impaired thought suppression may be an important feature of social phobia.
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Author information
Author/s: Fehm, Lydia (L); Margraf, Juergen (J);
Affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Technical University of Dresden, Germany. lydia.fehm(-atsign-)mailbox.tu-dresden.de
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article
Journal: Behaviour research and therapy (Behav Res Ther), published in England. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Jan; vol 40 (issue 1) : pp 57-66
Dates: Created 2001/12/13; Completed 2002/01/22; Revised 2004/11/17;
PMID: 11762427, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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