Implantable cardioverter defibrillator shocks are prospective predictors of anxiety.

Objectives: To examine the temporal contingency of anxiety and implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy (anti-tachycardia-pacing and shocks to prevent ventricular tachycardia and/or fibrillation).

Background: It is under debate whether anxiety is a precursor and/or consequence of ICD-therapy.

Methods: In a prospective longitudinal study, fifty-four patients undergoing first-time ICD-implantation were assessed for anxiety, frequency of ICD-shocks and anti-tachycardia-pacing up to two days before ICD-implantation (T0) and twelve months later (T1).

Stability and cause of anxiety in patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator: a longitudinal two-year follow-up.

Objective: Several investigations have found that anxiety disorders often develop in patients with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). This study investigated the inter--and intraindividual stability of anxiety and its relation to ICD activity in patients with an ICD.

Methods: Changes in the psychopathology of 35 patients with an ICD were assessed at the beginning of the trial period and 2.

Selective processing of pain-related word stimuli in subclinical depression as indicated by event-related brain potentials.

An intense discussion still exists as to whether pain and depression are causally related or independent of each other. To investigate processing of pain-related word stimuli in subclinically depressed individuals, we designed an event-related potentials study in a group control design. Pain words and neutral words were presented to 16 subclinically depressed and 16 control participants.

Electrocortical evidence for an early abnormal processing of panic-related words in panic disorder patients.

Panic patients are hypothesized to have particularly elaborated cortical networks for panic-related stimuli, and this characteristic should be associated with an abnormal automatic processing of these stimuli. Panic-related and neutral words were presented to 25 panic patients and 25 matched healthy controls either at individually determined perception thresholds (threshold condition) or for 1000 ms (above threshold condition). Word recognition for words presented at perception threshold (threshold words), and event-related brain potentials (ERPs) triggered by threshold and above threshold words were analyzed.

Implicit and explicit memory processes in panic patients as reflected in behavioral and electrophysiological measures.

Implicit and explicit memory processes for panic-relevant and neutral word stimuli were examined in 16 panic patients and 16 healthy participants matched for sex, age, and education, using behavioral and electrophysiological measures. In the study phase, panic-relevant and neutral words were presented and the level of processing was varied by requiring either shallow (orthographic) or deeper (syntactic) processing. Implicit memory was tested with a lexical decision task, explicit memory with a recognition task.

Covariation bias and its physiological correlates in panic disorder patients.

A covariation bias, i.e., the overestimation of random contingencies between fear-relevant stimuli and aversive consequences, seems to characterize anxiety disorders.