False Safety Behavior Elimination Therapy: A randomized study of a brief individual transdiagnostic treatment for anxiety disorders.

In response to the ever-growing number of CBT based therapy protocols, transdiagnostic approaches to anxiety treatment, based on models of anxiety emphasizing common elements across anxiety disorders, have been increasingly explored. The aim of the current study was to test the efficacy of an individually administered, brief (5-session) transdiagnostic treatment for anxiety disorders. The current treatment (called F-SET) focuses chiefly on the elimination of anxiety maintaining behaviors and cognitive strategies (so-called "safety" aids) among individuals suffering from a range of anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder (PD).

Understanding the associations among anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and discomfort intolerance: a comparison of three models.

Emerging work has identified several related constructs that appear to be relevant to anxiety psychopathology including anxiety sensitivity (AS), distress tolerance (DT) and discomfort intolerance (DI). AS refers to the fear of the consequences of anxiety-related sensations. DT measures tolerance of negative emotions, whereas DI measures tolerance of uncomfortable physical sensations.

A taxometric exploration of the latent structure of hoarding.

Despite controversy regarding the classification and diagnostic status of hoarding disorder, there remains a paucity of research on the nosology of hoarding that is likely to inform the classification debate. The present investigation examined the latent structure of hoarding in three, large independent samples. Data for three well-validated measures of hoarding were subjected to taxometric procedures, including MAXimum EIGenvalue, Mean Above Minus Below A Cut, and Latent-Mode factor.

Excessive reassurance seeking and anxiety pathology: tests of incremental associations and directionality.

Excessive reassurance-seeking (ERS) is hypothesized to play a key role in emotional disorders but has been studied mostly in relation to depression. Study 1 reports a new measure of reassurance seeking that assessed ERS related to general and evaluative threats in a non-clinical student sample, and its factor structure was further examined in Study 2. In Study 3, the scale, along with other symptom-related measures and an existing measure of depressive ERS, was administered to an undergraduate sample at two different time points, one month apart.

Anxiety symptomatology: the association with distress tolerance and anxiety sensitivity.

Research focused on psychological risk factors for anxiety psychopathology has led to better conceptualization of these conditions as well as pointed toward preventative interventions. Anxiety sensitivity (AS) has been well-established as an anxiety risk factor, while distress tolerance (DT) is a related construct that has received little empirical exploration within the anxiety psychopathology literature. The current investigation sought to extend the existing literature by examining both DT and the relationship between DT and AS across a number of anxiety symptom dimensions, including panic, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive anxiety.

Suppressing the White Bears interacts with Anxiety Sensitivity in the prediction of Mood and Anxiety Symptoms.

Suppression is a commonly used strategy to manage unwanted thoughts by attempting to actively remove them from awareness. However, research has shown that this cognitive strategy often results in the paradoxical effect of increasing the frequency of unwanted thoughts. While the association between thought suppression and mood and anxiety symptoms has been repeatedly demonstrated, relations between this cognitive strategy and other anxiety risk factors such as anxiety sensitivity (AS) are unexplored.

A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of placebo manipulations in alcohol-challenge studies.

Our meta-analysis examined the impact of specific alcohol placebo procedures on two manipulation checks (participant reports of number of alcohol drinks consumed and subjective intoxication) to determine which procedures produced the smallest effect sizes in comparisons between alcohol and placebo conditions. Databases for the years 1990-2007 yielded 44 studies that met inclusion criteria. These were subjected to detailed coding of procedures pertinent to placebo effectiveness.

Examining the unique relationships between anxiety disorders and childhood physical and sexual abuse in the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication.

Research has accumulated over the past several years demonstrating a relationship between childhood abuse and anxiety disorders. Extant studies have generally suffered from a number of methodological limitations, including low sample sizes and without controlling for psychiatric comorbidity and parental anxiety. In addition, research has neglected to examine whether the relationships between anxiety disorders and childhood abuse are unique to physical abuse as opposed to sexual abuse and vice versa.

Specific visuomotor deficits due to alcohol intoxication: evidence from the pro- and antisaccade paradigms.

Rationale: Alcohol affects a variety of human behaviors, including visual perception and motor control. Although recent research has begun to explore mechanisms that mediate these changes, their exact nature is still not well understood.

Objectives: The present study used two basic oculomotor tasks to examine the effect of alcohol on different levels of visual processing within the same individuals.

Rats avoid high magnetic fields: dependence on an intact vestibular system.

High strength static magnetic fields are thought to be benign and largely undetectable by mammals. As magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines increase in strength, however, potential aversive effects may become clinically relevant. Here we report that rats find entry into a 14.

Evidence for a cephalic site of action of high magnetic fields on the behavioral responses of rats.

Static high magnetic fields (MFs) from 7 T to 9 T can elicit behavioral responses in rodents such as suppression of rearing, locomotor circling, and acquisition of a conditioned taste aversion (CTA). MF exposure also induces c-Fos expression in the visceral and vestibular nuclei of the brainstem, suggesting the stimulation of some sensory pathways. It is not clear, however, if the effects of the MF are caused by exposure to the uniform maximal field at the center of the magnet, or by exposure to the steep field gradients along the bore of the magnet during the rat's placement.

Suppression of drinking by exposure to a high-strength static magnetic field.

High-strength static magnetic fields of 7 T and above have been shown to have both immediate and delayed effects on rodents, such as the induction of locomotor circling and the acquisition of conditioned taste aversions. In this study, the acute effects of magnet field exposure on drinking were examined. Exposure to a 14.

Behavioral effects on rats of high strength magnetic fields generated by a resistive electromagnet.

It has been reported previously that exposure to static high magnetic fields of 7 T or above in superconducting magnets has behavioral effects on rats. In particular, magnetic field exposure acutely but transiently suppressed rearing and induced walking in tight circles; the direction of circular locomotion was dependent on the rats' orientation within the magnet. Furthermore, when magnet exposure was paired with consumption of a palatable, novel solution, rats acquired a persistent taste aversion.