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Intrusive thoughts and attempts to suppress them are common, but while suppression may be effective in the short-term, it can increase thought recurrence in the long-term. Because intentional suppression involves controlled processing, and many aspects of controlled processing decline with age, age differences in thought suppression outcomes may emerge, especially over repeated thought suppression attempts as cognitive resources are expended. Using multilevel modeling, we examined age differences in reactions to thought suppression attempts across four thought suppression sequences in 40 older and 42 younger adults. As expected, age differences were more prevalent during suppression than during free monitoring periods, with younger adults indicating longer, more frequent thought recurrences and greater suppression difficulty. Further, younger adults’ thought suppression outcomes changed over time, while trajectories for older adults’ were relatively stable. Results are discussed in terms of older adults’ reduced thought recurrence, which was potentially afforded by age-related changes in reactive control and distractibility.

Background and Objectives Carbon dioxide (CO2) hypersensitivity is hypothesized to be a robust endophenotypic marker of panic spectrum vulnerability. The goal of the current study was to explore the latent class trajectories of three primary response systems theoretically associated with CO2 hypersensitivity: subjective anxiety, panic symptoms, and respiratory rate (fR). Methods Participants (n=376; 56% female) underwent a maintained 7.5% CO2 breathing task that included three phases: baseline, CO2 air breathing, and recovery. Growth mixture modeling was used to compare response classes (1..n) to identify the best-fit model for each marker. Panic correlates also were examined to determine class differences in panic vulnerability. Results For subjective anxiety ratings, a three-class model was selected, with individuals in one class reporting an acute increase in anxiety during 7.5% CO2 breathing and a return to pre-CO2 levels during recovery. A second, smaller latent class was distinguished by elevated anxiety across all three phases. The third class reported low anxiety reported during room air, a mild increase in anxiety during 7.5% CO2 breathing, and a return to baseline during recovery. Latent class trajectories for fR yielded one class whereas panic symptom response yielded two classes. Limitations This study examined CO2 hypersensitivity in one of the largest samples to date, but did not ascertain a general population sample thereby limiting generalizability. Moreover, a true resting baseline measure of fR was not measured. Conclusions Two classes potentially representing different risk pathways were observed. Implications of results will be discussed in the context of panic risk research.

Understanding differences in responses following attempts to suppress versus simply monitor intrusive thoughts is important given the established relationship between intrusive thinking and numerous forms of psychopathology. Moreover, these differences may vary as a function of age. Because of the links between aging and both enhancement in emotion regulation skills and decline in inhibition skills, older and younger adults were expected to differ in their responses (e.g., experience of negative affect and thought recurrence) to attempts at suppressing intrusive thoughts. This study examined whether efforts to suppress thought content that varied in valence and age-relevance differentially affected older (N = 40, aged 66–92) and younger (N = 42, aged 16–25) adults’ ability to inhibit intrusive thought recurrence and their resulting negative affect. Interestingly, older adults experienced less recurrence for most thoughts than younger adults. Also, for several dependent variables (negative affect and perceived difficulty suppressing intrusive thoughts), older adults showed less decline in their magnitude of response across thinking periods (i.e., from suppression to monitoring) than did younger adults. These age effects were not generally moderated by level of trait anxiety, though higher anxiety did predict intrusive thought responding in expected directions, such as greater negative affect. These findings point to independent influences of age and anxiety, and suggest a complex mix of risk and protective factors for older adults’ responses to intrusive thoughts.