These data are consistent with the hypothesis that ADHD involves diminished selective attention and suggest that methylphenidate ameliorates the symptoms of ADHD, at least in part, by altering an early attentional mechanism.

No abstract

The current report presents the underlying rationale and components of an interoceptive exposure-based smoking cessation treatment for anxiety-sensitive smokers. The intervention was pilot-tested on three (female) daily smokers with moderate to high levels of nicotine dependence and high levels of anxiety sensitivity. Results indicated meaningful therapeutic gains in smoking outcome and theoretically expected changes in anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and negative as well as positive affective states. Overall, the present case series highlights a potentially promising way to integrate interoceptive exposure-based treatment with standard smoking cessation treatment for smokers high in anxiety sensitivity. From a treatment development perspective, these case-series data suggest that future study of this intervention in a large-scale (controlled) clinical trial is indicated.

The present investigation examined the relationships between anxiety sensitivity and motivation to quit smoking, barriers to smoking cessation, and reasons for quitting smoking among 329 adult daily smokers (160 females; M (age) = 26.08 years, SD = 10.92). As expected, after covarying for the theoretically relevant variables of negative affectivity, gender, Axis I psychopathology, nonclinical panic attack history, number of cigarettes smoked per day, and current levels of alcohol consumption, we found that anxiety sensitivity was significantly incrementally related to level of motivation to quit smoking as well as current barriers to quitting smoking. Partially consistent with the hypotheses, after accounting for the variance explained by other theoretically relevant variables, we found that anxiety sensitivity was significantly associated with self-control reasons for quitting smoking (intrinsic factors) as well as immediate reinforcement and social influence reasons for quitting (extrinsic factors). Results are discussed in relation to better understanding the role of anxiety sensitivity in psychological processes associated with smoking cessation.

Abstract. This investigation evaluated the role of mindfulness-based attention in concurrently predicting anxiety and depressive symptomatology and perceived health functioning in a community sample of 170 young adults (95 females; mean age (M age )522.2 years, SD57.6). Partially consistent with prediction, results indicated that, relative to negative and positive affectivity and emotional expression and processing associated with approach-oriented coping, mindfulness-based attention incrementally predicted anhedonic depressive, but not anxious arousal, symptoms. Additionally, consistent with prediction, mindfulness-based attention demonstrated incremental validity in relation to perceived health, and the degree of impairment of health in terms of physical and mental functioning. Results are discussed in relation to the construct development of mindfulness-based attention, and specifically, the role(s) of this factor in emotional and physical health processes.