Publications by authors named "Juliane M Boschet-Lange"
Article Synopsis
- Excessive avoidance in anxiety disorders often leads individuals to miss out on positive outcomes.
- Researchers studied how this conflict plays out by examining participants' choices between avoiding spiders or taking the risk for a reward.
- The results showed that highly fearful individuals were more influenced by fear than potential rewards, indicating a bias in decision-making that contributes to avoidance behaviors.
Background: A habitual avoidance component may enforce the persistence of maladaptive avoidance behavior in anxiety disorders. Whether habitual avoidance is acquired more strongly in anxiety disorders is unclear.
Methods: Individuals with current social anxiety disorder, panic disorder and/or agoraphobia (n = 62) and healthy individuals (n = 62) completed a devaluation paradigm with extensive avoidance training, followed by the devaluation of the aversive outcome.