Anticipatory processing increases attentional biases to disgust faces in socially anxious individuals: Evidence from the N2pc and CDA.

Attentional biases to socially threatening facial expressions (anger, disgust) have been repeatedly observed in socially anxious individuals. These biases are thought to arise, in part, because anticipatory processing of social situations increases the salience of negative social cues. Additionally, self-focused attention on somatic symptoms of anxiety (e.

Implementing Longitudinal Wellbeing Interventions and Evaluation Among Midwestern Healthcare Workers During COVID-19.

Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of healthcare workers throughout the world has been reported, but most studies have been cross-sectional and excluded the Midwestern U.S. healthcare workforce.

CaringGuidance™ after breast cancer diagnosis eHealth psychoeducational intervention to reduce early post-diagnosis distress.

Purpose: Significant cancer-related distress affects 30-60% of women diagnosed with breast cancer. Fewer than 30% of distressed patients receive psychosocial care. Unaddressed distress is associated with poor treatment adherence, reduced quality of life, and increased healthcare costs.

Examination of evaluative threat in worry: Insights from the Error-Related Negativity (ERN).

Recent research suggests atypical error-monitoring is important to understanding pathological anxiety. Because uncertainty is a transdiagnostic factor associated with anxiety and related disorders, recent research has begun to examine the influence of uncertainty in error-monitoring. Moreover, task irrelevant threat has been shown to influence cognitive performance in individuals with maladaptive anxiety.

Integrated Treatment of PTSD and Substance Use Disorders: Examination of Imaginal Exposure Length.

Efforts to improve the efficiency of prolonged exposure (PE) therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have demonstrated that reducing the length of imaginal exposures does not negatively affect treatment outcome. A recent adaptation of PE, called Concurrent Treatment of PTSD and Substance Use Disorders Using Prolonged Exposure [COPE], integrates substance use disorder treatment with PE in the same timeframe (twelve 90-minute sessions, 8 of which include imaginal exposure). The current study, which represents a subanalysis of a larger randomized controlled trial, examined how the length of imaginal exposures (nonrandomized and measured continually) related to PTSD, substance use, and depression in a sample of military veterans (N = 31) who completed the COPE treatment.

Relations among social support, PTSD symptoms, and substance use in veterans.

Social support plays a significant role in the development, maintenance, and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, there has been little investigation of social support with PTSD and its frequent comorbid conditions and related symptoms. Substance use disorders (SUDs) are 1 set of conditions that have yet to be investigated in combination with PTSD and social support.

Concreteness of idiographic worry and anticipatory processing.

Background And Objectives: Worry and anticipatory processing are forms of repetitive negative thinking (RNT) that are associated with maladaptive characteristics and negative consequences. One key maladaptive characteristic of worry is its abstract nature (Goldwin & Behar, 2012; Stöber & Borkovec, 2002). Several investigations have relied on inductions of worry that are social-evaluative in nature, which precludes distinctions between worry and RNT about social-evaluative situations.

Trait attentional control influences the relationship between repetitive negative thinking and psychopathology symptoms.

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) has been implicated in several disorders (e.g., Clark (2005)).

Electrocortical Evidence of Enhanced Performance Monitoring in Social Anxiety.

Self-focused attention is thought to be a key feature of social anxiety disorder. Yet few studies have used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine whether socially anxious individuals display greater monitoring of their performance and attention to their errors. Similarly, only a few studies have used ERPs to examine how social anxiety is related to processing of performance feedback.

Worry and Discrimination of Threat and Safety Cues: An Event-Related Potential Investigation.

Overgeneralization of fear to safety cues is increasingly being studied in order to further our understanding of the maintenance of anxiety disorders. The current study used event-related potentials (ERPs) to evaluate whether worry affects anticipation and processing of threat and neutral pictures during a conditioning task. Fifty-two high (n=24) and low (n=28) worriers completed a paradigm in which a neutral stimulus indicated the valence of a second stimulus, either a threat or neutral picture.

The comparative efficacy of first- versus second-generation electronic cigarettes in reducing symptoms of nicotine withdrawal.

Background And Aims: Currently, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are studied as though they are a homogeneous category. However, there are several noteworthy differences in the products that fall under this name, including potential differences in the efficacy of these products as smoking cessation aids. The current study examined the comparative efficacy of first- and second-generation e-cigarettes in reducing nicotine withdrawal symptoms in a sample of current smokers with little or no experience of using e-cigarettes.

The influence of stress on the affective modulation of the startle response to nicotine cues.

Recent research suggesting that nicotine cues are appetitive in nature promotes the affective modulation of the startle reflex (AMSR) paradigm as a potentially valuable psychophysiological tool for elucidating mechanisms involved in nicotine addiction. Despite numerous studies indicating stress as a key factor in nicotine dependence, specific behavioral mechanisms linking stress and smoking have yet to be explicated. The current study aimed to determine the effects of stress, a negative affective state intimately linked with nicotine use, on the psychophysiological responding of nicotine dependent individuals during smoking cues.

The influence of anticipatory processing on attentional biases in social anxiety.

Research on cognitive theories of social anxiety disorder (SAD) has identified individual processes that influence this condition (e.g., cognitive biases, repetitive negative thinking), but few studies have attempted to examine the interaction between these processes.

Consequences of anticipatory processing on cognitive symptoms of social anxiety.

Anticipatory processing is an anxious style of repetitive negative thought associated with social anxiety (SA) that was proposed by Clark and Wells. Considerable research has examined factors of Clark and Wells' cognitive model of SA (e.g.

Factor structure and validation of the Attentional Control Scale.

The Attentional Control Scale (ACS; Derryberry & Reed, 2002) has been used to assess executive control over attention in numerous studies, but no published data have examined the factor structure of the English version. The current studies addressed this need and tested the predictive and convergent validity of the ACS subscales. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis yielded a two-factor model with Focusing and Shifting subscales.

The neural correlates of impaired attentional control in social anxiety: an ERP study of inhibition and shifting.

Cognitive models of social anxiety disorder posit that maladaptive thought processes play an etiological role in symptoms. The current study tested whether socially anxious individuals (HSAs) demonstrated impaired processing efficiency at the neural and behavioral level, and whether this was exacerbated by self-focused attention. Thirty-two (16 socially anxious, 16 nonanxious controls) subjects completed a mixed-antisaccade task with an oddball instructional cue.

Working memory load moderates late attentional bias in social anxiety.

The vigilance-avoidance hypothesis suggests that socially anxious individuals attempt to detect signs that they are being evaluated (vigilance) and subsequently direct attention away from such stimuli (avoidance). Although extensive evidence supports vigilance, data concerning subsequent avoidance is equivocal. Drawing from models of attention, the current study hypothesised that working memory load moderates late attentional bias in social anxiety such that avoidance occurs if working memory load is low, and difficulty disengaging attention occurs if working memory load is high.