Linguistic processing and Script-Driven Imagery for trauma exposure: A proof of concept pilot trial.

Unlabelled: While several empirically supported treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been developed, these treatments are neither widely available nor universally efficacious. This pilot, proof of concept study evaluated a computerized imaginal exposure Script-Driven Imagery Training (SDI-T) for individuals with elevated trauma reactivity. The training was supplemented with two forms of linguistic processing, affect labeling (SDI-T + AL) and distraction (SDI-T + D), to determine whether linguistic inhibitory regulation augmented the effects of SDI-T.

Building physiological toughness: Some aversive events during extinction may attenuate return of fear.

Background And Objectives: Although exposure therapy is an effective treatment for anxiety disorders, fear sometimes returns following successful therapy. Recent literature in animal models indicates that incorporating some aversive events into extinction training may offset these return of fear effects.

Methods: The effect of occasional reinforced extinction trials was investigated in a sample of thirty-nine participants using a fear conditioning and extinction paradigm.

Feeling safe but appearing anxious: Differential effects of alcohol on anxiety and social performance in individuals with social anxiety disorder.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD) co-occur frequently and there is preliminary evidence that alcohol might reduce social anxiety. It is, however, unclear which mechanisms contribute to the anxiety reducing effect, particularly regarding key aspects of social anxiety such as deficits in social performance. We compared self-rated and physiological measures of anxiety as well as self- and observer-rated social performance in a sample of 62 individuals with SAD and 60 nonanxious control participants during a speech task after receiving either alcohol, an alcohol-free placebo drink or orange juice.

What does the facial dot-probe task tell us about attentional processes in social anxiety? A systematic review.

Background/objectives: Current models of SAD assume that attentional processes play a pivotal role in the etiology and maintenance of social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety is supposedly associated with an attentional bias towards disorder related stimuli such as threatening faces. Using the facial dot probe task in socially anxious individuals has, however, revealed inconsistent findings.

Oxytocin receptor gene methylation: converging multilevel evidence for a role in social anxiety.

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a commonly occurring and highly disabling disorder. The neuropeptide oxytocin and its receptor (OXTR) have been implicated in social cognition and behavior. This study-for the first time applying a multilevel epigenetic approach-investigates the role of OXTR gene methylation in categorical, dimensional, and intermediate neuroendocrinological/neural network phenotypes of social anxiety.

Influence of alcohol on social anxiety: an investigation of attentional, physiological and behavioral effects.

Social anxiety disorder and alcohol use disorders are highly comorbid. It remains unclear, however, if and how alcohol influences attentional processes and physical symptoms in social anxiety. In a balanced-placebo-design, high and normally socially anxious participants gave a speech while performing a task, which simultaneously measures internal and external attention.

Enhanced avoidance behavior in social anxiety: evidence from a probabilistic learning task.

Background And Objectives: Social phobia is characterized by avoidance of feared social situations. Although avoidance is a central feature of social anxiety, few studies have examined avoidance learning.

Methods: We used a probabilistic instrumental learning paradigm where participants had to learn by trial and error which response led to the disappearance of a neutral or angry face.

The motive to drink due to social anxiety and its relation to hazardous alcohol use.

Although studies on social anxiety and alcohol-related problems are numerous, the exact nature of the relationship remains unclear. In the present study, we investigate how the motive to drink due to social anxiety is associated with hazardous alcohol use over and above habitual alcohol use, social anxiety, and alcohol outcome expectancies. We also examine which factors define the motive to drink due to social anxiety and clarify the impact of the type of social situation.

Internal and external attention in speech anxiety.

Background And Objectives: Cognitive models of social phobia propose that socially anxious individuals engage in heightened self-focused attention. Evidence for this assumption was provided by dot probe and feedback tasks measuring attention and reactions to internal cues. However, it is unclear whether similar patterns of attentional processing can be revealed while participants actually engage in a social situation.

Predicting post-event processing in social anxiety disorder following two prototypical social situations: state variables and dispositional determinants.

This study investigated self-reported state (anxiety, physical symptoms, cognitions, internally focused attention, safety behaviors, social performance) and trait (social anxiety, depressive symptoms, dysfunctional self-consciousness) predictors of post-event processing (PEP) subsequent to two social situations (interaction, speech) in participants with a primary diagnosis of social anxiety disorder (SAD) and healthy controls (HC). The speech triggered significantly more intense PEP, especially in SAD. Regardless of the type of social situation, PEP was best predicted by situational anxiety and dysfunctional cognitions among the state variables.

Self-referential and anxiety-relevant information processing in subclinical social anxiety: an fMRI study.

The fear of negative evaluation is one of the hallmark features of social anxiety. Behavioral evidence thus far largely supports cognitive models which postulate that information processing biases in the face of socially relevant information are a key factor underlying this widespread phobia. So far only one neuroimaging study has explicitly focused on the fear of negative evaluation in social anxiety where the brain responses of social phobics were compared to healthy participants during the processing of self-referential relative to other-referential criticism, praise or neutral information.

Eye movement assessment in individuals with social phobia: differential usefulness for varying presentation times?

Visual dot probe tasks are used to examine attentional biases towards threat faces in social phobia. Based on eye movement assessments, short presentation times of stimuli have been proposed to investigate initial attentional processes. However, it remains unclear if eye movements contribute to anxiety related biases as measured in dot probe tasks when presentation times below 200 ms are used.

Heartbeat perception in social anxiety before and during speech anticipation.

According to current cognitive models of social phobia, individuals with social anxiety create a distorted image of themselves in social situations, relying, at least partially, on interoceptive cues. We investigated differences in heartbeat perception as a proxy of interoception in 48 individuals high and low in social anxiety at baseline and while anticipating a public speech. Results revealed lower error scores for high fearful participants both at baseline and during speech anticipation.

What determines observer-rated social performance in individuals with social anxiety disorder?

Clark and Wells (1995) proposed that cognitive variables and safety behaviors are related to social performance in social anxiety disorder (SAD). Here, we tested this relationship by concurrent assessment of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological variables and social performance in a prototypical social interaction situation. 103 participants with SAD and 23 healthy controls interacted with a confederate.

Interoceptive sensitivity in anxiety and anxiety disorders: an overview and integration of neurobiological findings.

Interoceptive sensitivity, particularly regarding heartbeat, has been suggested to play a pivotal role in the pathogenesis of anxiety and anxiety disorders. This review provides an overview of methods which are frequently used to assess heartbeat perception in clinical studies and summarizes presently available results referring to interoceptive sensitivity with respect to heartbeat in anxiety-related traits (anxiety sensitivity, state/trait anxiety), panic disorder and other anxiety disorders. In addition, recent neurobiological studies of neuronal activation correlates of heartbeat perception using positron emission tomography (PET), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques are presented.

A spectralanalytic approach to emotional responses evoked through picture presentation.

Frontal EEG asymmetry has been linked to emotional and motivational reactivity. A frequently applied method to provoke specific asymmetry profiles is the presentation of affective film clips. Although these films might elicit strong emotional reactions, the exact time course and peak of an affective response remains unclear.

Influence of alcohol on the processing of emotional facial expressions in individuals with social phobia.

Objectives: Individuals with social phobia are at an increased risk to develop alcohol problems. However, the mechanism responsible for this association is unclear. It has been suggested that alcohol reduces anxiety by impairing initial appraisal of threatening stimuli.

Blushing propensity in social anxiety disorder: influence of serotonin transporter gene variation.

Blushing is considered to be one of the prime pathophysiological markers of social anxiety disorder, potentially mediated by serotonergic function. Therefore, in the present study 62 patients with social anxiety disorder and 62 age- and sex-matched healthy controls were investigated for the influence of serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene variation (5-HTTLPR, rs25531) on blushing propensity as measured by the blushing propensity scale (BPS). The less active 5-HTTLPR genotypes were nominally significantly associated with increased blushing propensity in patients with social anxiety disorder as compared to controls with an equidirectional trend for the less active 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 haplotypes.

Effects of alcohol on ratings of emotional facial expressions in social phobics.

Social phobics have an increased risk of alcoholism. The mechanism behind this co-morbidity is not well understood. According to the appraisal-disruption model [Sayette, M.

Blood-injury phobia with and without a history of fainting: disgust sensitivity does not explain the fainting response.

Objective: Individuals diagnosed with blood-injury phobia respond to venipuncture with strong psychophysiological responses. We investigated whether disgust sensitivity contributes to the fainting response and is associated with parasympathetic activation, as suggested by previous research.

Methods: Twenty individuals diagnosed with blood-injury phobia (9 with a history of fainting to the sight of blood, 11 without such a fainting history) and 20 healthy controls were compared.