Negative autobiographical memories in social anxiety disorder: A comparison with panic disorder and healthy controls

Abstract

The findings align with models of SAD suggesting that past negative social events play a central role in this disorder. Future research is suggested to further explore the function of negative memories, not only in SAD, but also in other anxiety disorders.

Event centrality as a unique predictor of posttraumatic stress symptoms and perceived disability following spinal cord injury

“…As can be seen in Table 1, the average score on the Centrality of Events Scale was M = 22.86, SD = 7.60, with a possible range of 7-35. This mean score is similar to mean scores on this scale reported for other traumatic events including undergraduate students who experienced a DSM-IV traumatic event (M = 24.92) 14 , older adults (M = 20.00) 19 , patients with social anxiety (M = 23.1) and patients with panic disorder (M = 21.7) 32 . Perhaps most relevant, the mean score in the present study is very similar to the mean score obtained in a sample of chronic pain patients 25 (M = 68.9 using the 20-item version, which translates to M = 24.1 if the 7-item version was used, which was used in the current study and the aforementioned studies).…”

“…The data were collected on participants within the first two weeks of their admittance to a rehabilitation center. The trajectory of PTSS resulting from traumatic experiences vary greatly in the months following such events 32 . Longitudinal studies are needed to examine the extent to which event centrality predicts the trajectory of PTSS in the months following injury.…”

Changes in perceived centrality of anxious events following cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder and panic disorder

“…Boelen (2009Boelen ( , 2012 found a significant association both at the time when individuals had recently lost their loved one and prospectively over one year. Regarding SAD and PD specifically, it has been found that both patient groups evaluate past anxious experiences as more central to their identity than healthy controls and that they do not differ from each other in this evaluation (O'Toole et al, 2016).…”

“…The present study is an investigation of negative autobiographical memories in individuals with SAD, PD, and healthy controls. It is an extension of a previous study, which we refer to as the baseline study (O'Toole et al, 2016), in which group differences in the Notice: This is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Behavior Therapy andExperimental Psychiatry, 59, 150-156.…”

“…The present paper concerns the perceived centrality of negative autobiographical memories in two common anxiety disorders, namely social anxiety disorder (SAD) and panic disorder (PD). The role of mental imagery of past negative events has long been of interest in cognitive interventions for anxiety disorders (e.g., Arntz & Weertman, 1999;Beck, 1979;Hackmann, Bennett-Levy, & Holmes, 2011), and has been detected in both SAD and PD (Hackmann et al, 2011;Moscovitch, Gavric, Merrifield, Bielak, & Moscovitch, 2011;O'Toole, Watson, Rosenberg, & Berntsen, 2016;Wild & Clark, 2011).…”