Dreams in anxiety disorders and anxiety

Rimsh, Anton; Pietrowsky, Reinhard

doi:10.11588/ijodr.2020.1.60789

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Thus, the study supports the relationship between GSEs and distress, established by past research (Soffer-Dudek, 2017; Soffer-Dudek & Shahar, 2009, 2011; Watson, 2001) and also the well-known association between nightmares and psychological distress. Specifically, nightmare frequency is elevated in psychiatric samples and has been consistently related to psychopathological symptoms such as anxiety, schizotypy, and suicidality (e.g., Levin, 1998; Ohayon et al, 1997; Rimsh & Pietrowsky, 2020; Roberts & Lennings, 2006; Tanskanen et al, 2001). Indeed, dream content, structure, and emotional tone are often continuous with the dreamer’s mental preoccupations and salient emotions during waking (Skancke, Holsen, & Schredl, 2014).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No evidence for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) use as explaining the relationship between sleep experiences and psychopathological distress.

Finkenberg¹,

Shalev²,

Vannikov-Lugassi³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

General Sleep Experiences (GSEs) are a group of unusual dream and sleep–wake transition phenomena, representing altered nocturnal consciousness. They have been repeatedly strongly correlated with psychopathological distress, which led them to be considered as arousal permeating the sleep state and a possible clinical marker of such distress. However, this correlation may be partially confounded by medication use among distressed individuals. This study aimed to explore whether treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) may be related to GSEs, thus posing a partial alternative explanation (i.e., inflating the strength of the association). Outpatients suffering from depression or anxiety and matched nonclinical controls completed questionnaires regarding their distress, medication use, and dreaming patterns. Multiple linear regression was used to evaluate the shared variance between distress, GSEs, and reported SSRI treatment. The clinical group reported significantly more GSEs than the control group, and accordingly, the number of GSEs correlated positively and robustly with levels of distress. SSRI treatment was a nonsignificant predictor in this model. Among the clinical group alone, SSRI-treated patients did not significantly differ in their reported levels of GSEs from patients without any antidepressant treatment, but a Bayesian analysis did not provide clear support for the null hypothesis. This study confirms previous research showing that psychopathology and GSEs are strongly related. However, the SSRI group’s sample size was small and more research is needed to conclude with confidence whether SSRI treatment may be a partial alternative explanation for some of the shared variance of this relationship.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

No evidence for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) use as explaining the relationship between sleep experiences and psychopathological distress.

Finkenberg¹,

Shalev²,

Vannikov-Lugassi³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…However, despite a relatively large body of research on dreams and nightmares in anxiety disorders, studies on the relationships between anxiety disorders and specific dream characteristics and on nightmare distress are very scarce (Rimsh & Pietrowsky, 2020; Skancke et al, 2014). The scarce existing data indicate that dreams of anxiety patients often contain different kinds of threats and dangers and various frightening, unpleasant, threatening, and negative events of high emotional intensity (Foss, 1994; Free et al, 1993; Gentil & Lader, 1978; Khodarahimi, 2009; Kirschner, 1999; Sikka et al, 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Characteristics of dreams and nightmares in patients with anxiety disorders.

Rimsh¹,

Pietrowsky²

2022

Dreaming

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Characteristics of dreams of clinical outpatients with anxiety disorders still remain a relatively poorly investigated field of psychology. The present study aimed at investigating several dream characteristics of outpatients with anxiety disorders in comparison with dream characteristics of healthy individuals. In the study, 38 adult participants with anxiety disorders and a matched healthy control group of 38 individuals were investigated. During a period of 21 days, all participants filled in written dream diaries directly after sleep, which contained two scales for positive and negative emotions and one scale for the general intensity of emotions in a dream, two dream questionnaires, the Multidimensional Düsseldorf Dream Inventory and the Mannheim Dream Questionnaire, and two nightmare questionnaires, the Nightmare Behavior Questionnaire and the Nightmare Distress Questionnaire. Results showed that patients with anxiety disorders tended to provide longer dream reports and possessed a higher dream recall frequency, their dreams were distinguished by a more negative emotional tone and a lower dream mood, more intense and vivid emotionality, more aversive dreams, a higher rate of incorporations of waking life into dreams, their waking-life mood was found to be more often influenced by dreams, they had a higher nightmare frequency and more nightmare distress and were more interested in the interpretation of their dreams. Within the group of anxiety patients, nightmare distress did not differ between men and women, as well as any behavioral consequences and effects after nightmares. The results indicate marked differences in the way anxiety patients experience dreams, irrespective of the dream contents.

show abstract

“…According to these studies, we can assume that dreams and dream content of individuals suffering from anxiety disorders will directly reflect their mental state and be immediately associated with it. Although there are a number of studies that address and explore the relationships between anxiety disorders and the frequency of nightmares or bad dreams (Kellner et al, 1991; Levin & Hurvich, 1995; Nadorff et al, 2014; Nielsen et al, 2000; Ohayon et al, 1997; Picard-Deland et al, 2018; Schredl et al, 2001; Simon et al, 2016; Simonds & Parraga, 1984; Swart et al, 2013), there is still an evident lack of psychological research concerning the subject of associations between anxiety disorders and dream contents in general (Rimsh & Pietrowsky, 2020; Skancke et al, 2014). It is also necessary to note that not only are such studies scarce, the existing investigations on this particular topic bear mostly an isolated and segregated character and highlight and investigate only specific individual minor facets, aspects, and particularities of dreams and dream contents of clinical anxiety sufferers (DeCicco et al, 2013; Foss, 1994; Free et al, 1993; Gentil & Lader, 1978; Khodarahimi, 2009; Kirschner, 1999; Miller et al, 2015; Sikka et al, 2018).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of dream contents of patients with anxiety disorders and their comparison with dreams of healthy participants.

Rimsh¹,

Pietrowsky²

2021

Dreaming

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although anxiety disorders are well investigated, little is known about the dream content of patients suffering from anxiety disorders. The aim of the present study was to investigate specific characteristics manifested in dreams of patients with clinical anxiety disorders and to compare them with dreams of healthy persons. The sample consisted of 38 participants with anxiety disorders and a matched healthy control group of 38 individuals. As soon as they woke up in the morning, each participant filled in written dream diaries for 21 days and thus provided written dream logs. Dream reports of the participants were analyzed according to the Hall and Van de Castle (1966) system of content analysis of dreams. The results of our study showed that the presence of an anxiety disorder resulted in significant differences in dream contents, compared to the dreams of healthy individuals. Dreams of anxiety patients contained more characters, higher numbers of different activities, social and aggressive interactions, lower numbers of friendly interactions, higher frequencies of failures, misfortunes and negative emotions, and a lower prevalence of successes, good fortune and positive emotions. In addition, they had higher numbers of locations and settings, had more negative evaluations and assessments, and were characterized by a more intense and wider range of different modifiers. The results thus indicate a clear difference in the content and structure of dreams in anxiety patients compared to healthy persons, although anxiety themes are not always prevalent in their dreams.

show abstract

Dreams in anxiety disorders and anxiety

Cited by 5 publications

References 0 publications

No evidence for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) use as explaining the relationship between sleep experiences and psychopathological distress.

No evidence for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) use as explaining the relationship between sleep experiences and psychopathological distress.

Characteristics of dreams and nightmares in patients with anxiety disorders.

Analysis of dream contents of patients with anxiety disorders and their comparison with dreams of healthy participants.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About