Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy or supportive counseling prior to exposure therapy in patients with panic disorder: study protocol for a multicenter randomized controlled trial (IMPROVE).

Background: Exposure-based therapy is the treatment of choice for anxiety disorders, but many patients do not benefit sufficiently from it. Distressing images of threat related to the future or past may maintain the anxiety symptomatology or impede exposure therapy. An intervention that targets threat-related imagery is eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.

Modeling the development of panic disorder with interoceptive conditioning.

Panic disorder is characterized by the paroxysmal occurrence and fear of bodily symptoms. In recent years it has been proposed that patients "learn" to fear cardiorespiratory sensations through interoceptive conditioning. This study sought to model the initial stage of this process in healthy volunteers (N=44) using mild cardiac sensations.

The weight of cognitions in panic: the link between misinterpretations and panic attacks.

In cognitive theory it is hypothesized that panic attacks are provoked by catastrophic misinterpretations of bodily sensations. The aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of associated word pairs referring to catastrophic thinking (e.g.

Carbon dioxide inhalation as a human experimental model of panic: the relationship between emotions and cardiovascular physiology.

Inhaling carbon dioxide (CO2)-enriched air induces fear and panic symptoms resembling real-life panic attacks, the hallmark of panic disorder. The present study aimed to describe the emotional and cardiovascular effects evoked by inhaling CO2, taking shortcomings of previous studies into account. Healthy volunteers underwent a double inhalation of 0, 9, 17.

The role of "interoceptive" fear conditioning in the development of panic disorder.

More than 20% of the general population experience a panic attack at least once in their lives; however, only a minority goes on to develop panic disorder (PD). Conditioning mechanisms have been proposed to explain this evolution in persons who are susceptible to developing panic disorder upon a "traumatic" panic attack. According to preparedness theory, some cues are more likely to condition than others, namely, those referring to internal, bodily signals of danger.

Priming associations between bodily sensations and catastrophic misinterpretations: Specific for panic disorder?

Cognitive models assume that panic disorder is characterised by a tendency to misinterpret benign bodily symptoms (e.g. breathlessness) in a catastrophic fashion (e.

A specific attentional bias in panic disorder?

According to cognitive theories, panic patients are assumed to have an attentional bias toward bodily sensations. To date, there is only some indirect evidence of such a bias measured by an emotional Stroop task. Moreover, the content and disorder specificity of this bias is rather unclear.

Reality monitoring and metacognitive beliefs related to cognitive confidence in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

The present study investigated general reality monitoring ability, and selective reality monitoring ability for anxiety relevant actions in a group of individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and a group of non-anxious controls. In addition, reality monitoring confidence was assessed, as well as specific meta-cognitive beliefs related to cognitive confidence (by means of the Meta-Cognitions Questionnaire (MCQ)). No differences were found between both groups in actual reality monitoring ability.