| dc.description.abstract | cognitive theories of panic disorder and hypochondriasis were investigated using
a modification of the stroop colour-naming task. sixty-two participants were divided
into four groups (hypochondriacal panickers, non-hypochondriacal panickers,
hypochondriacal non-panickers, and controls) on the basis of their responses to the
illness behavior questionnaire and the panic attack questionnaire. colour-naming
times for neutral words and five categories of threat words (imminent physical, imminent
mental, non-imminent, autonomic arousal, and non-autonomic arousal) were recorded in
order to explore the hypotheses that the perceived imminence of the catastrophe and the
types of symptoms that are feared are the key features that discriminate between panic
disorder and hypochondriasis. contrary to predictions, panickers and hypochondriacs did
not exhibit selective processing for any category of stimulus items. that is, in
comparison to neutral words, panickers did not take longer to colour-name the imminent
physical catastrophe, imminent mental catastrophe, and autonomic arousal words, that
were most relevant to the experience of panic attacks. furthermore, subjects with
hypochondriacal concerns did not exhibit greater stroop interference for the nonimminent
catastrophe or non-autonomic arousal words that were most closely associated
with hypochondriacal ideation. the findings did indicate, however, that panickers and
individuals with greater degrees of psychopathology, exhibited slower responding in
general. methodological differences between the present study and previous research
with panickers may account for inconsistencies in the findings. implications of these
findings for cognitive theories of panic disorder and hypochondriasis are discussed and
suggestions for future research are made. | |
