Affect variability and emotional reactivity in generalized anxiety disorder.

Background And Objectives: Research indicates that greater variability in affect and emotion over time is associated with depression and anxiety. However, it remains unclear whether individuals with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) experience greater affect variability due to individual differences or differences in the stimuli they encounter. The current study investigated whether individuals with analogue GAD demonstrate greater affect variability in response to a standardized set of stimuli.

Interpersonal pathoplasticity in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder.

Recent theories of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have emphasized interpersonal and personality functioning as important aspects of the disorder. We examined heterogeneity in interpersonal problems in 2 studies of individuals with GAD (n = 47 and n = 83). Interpersonal subtypes were assessed with the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems-Circumplex (Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 1990).

Startle response in generalized anxiety disorder.

Background: The main purpose of the present study was to examine the startle reflex in individuals diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and control participants in terms of three questions. First, is the basic startle reflex modulated by autonomic nervous system (ANS) activation and/or attentional focus? Second, are induced and self-reported emotional states related to the magnitude of the startle response? And third, do individuals with GAD and their controls show differential startle responses?

Methods: Experimental tasks designed to elicit sympathetic and parasympathetic activation and requiring internal and external attention foci were administered to nine individuals with GAP and nine controls.

Results: Individuals with GAD showed a greater startle reflex than controls during involvement in tasks that either induced worry or relaxation but not during a baseline period.

Worry, generalized anxiety disorder, and emotion: evidence from the EEG gamma band.

The present study examined EEG gamma (35-70 Hz) spectral power distributions during worry inductions in participants suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and in control participants without a history of psychiatric illness. As hypothesized, the EEG gamma band was useful for differentiating worry from baseline and relaxation. During worry induction, GAD patients showed higher levels of gamma activity than control participants in posterior electrode sites that have been previously associated with negative emotion.

Correction to schut et Al. (2005).

Reports an error in "Therapist Interpretation, Patient-Therapist Interpersonal Process, and Outcome in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Avoidant Personality Disorder" by Alexander J. Schut, Louis G. Castonguay, Kelly M.