Autobiographical Memory and Episodic Future Thinking in Severe Health Anxiety: A Comparison with Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

Gehrt, Tine B.; Frostholm, Lisbeth; Obermann, Marie-Louise; Berntsen, Dorthe

doi:10.1007/s10608-019-10058-3

Cited by 6 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…If both hypotheses are supported, it will not only support established theories of OCD (Rachman, 1997 ) concerning the role of intrusive imagery in general, but will importantly lend support to recent theories of OCD (Gehrt, et al, 2020 ; Zermatten et al, 2008 ) highlighting how spontaneous thoughts about the future are able to drive and maintain anxiety-related disorders.…”

Section: Aims and Hypotheses Of The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 64%

“…Therefore, we only found support for hypothesis two in one dimension of OCD symptoms, but found support for the role of temporality in general in all three. This emphasises, for the first time, the usefulness of spontaneous past and future thought as constructs in explaining anxiety conditions (Holmes & Matthews, 2010 ; Raune, MacLeod & Homes, 2005 ) and obsessiv– compulsive thoughts and behaviours (Gehrt, et al, 2020 ; Zermatten et al, 2008 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, we explore these distinctions further by looking into the temporal orientation of MW (see Baird, Smallwood & Schooler, 2011), and its relationship with OCD symptomatology. Temporality is particularly important to understand OCD, as recent findings have highlighted the salient role that future-oriented feared outcomes play in the disorder (e.g., “If I don’t return home, a fire will burn through the street harming my neighbours”; see Gehrt, et al, 2020 ; Zermatten et al, 2008 ). Furthermore, future-oriented MW has been associated with important functions, such as goal-directed cognitions and creativity (Baird, Smallwood & Schooler, 2011 ; Baird et al, 2012 ; Stawarczyk et al, 2011 ).…”

Section: Predictors Of Obsessive–compulsive Symptomology: Mind Wandering About the Past And Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

“…’). Additionally, compared with healthy controls, people with OCD report heightened vividness and contextual richness when imagining events (Gehrt, Frostholm, Pallesen, Obermann, & Berntsen, 2020 ; Zermatten et al, 2008 ). The fact that highly vivid imagined scenarios can lead to increased feelings of probability (Raune et al, 2005 ), especially when they are repeated (Szpunar & Schacter, 2013 ) leads to an explanation of how future-oriented thoughts may trigger the obsessions and compulsions of OCD.…”

Section: Mind Wandering: An Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although future-oriented spontaneous thought could explain the salience of ‘intrusions’ in the clinical presentation of OCD, the importance of future-oriented thoughts in OCD has been especially highlighted in theories from evolutionary psychology (Abed & DePauw, 1998 ; Miloyan et al, 2016 ). Nevertheless, to our knowledge, this project is one of the few attempts to directly measure prospection in relation to patterns of OCD symptomology (see also Gehrt, et al, 2020 ; Zermatten et al, 2008 ).…”

Section: Mind Wandering: An Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictors of obsessive–compulsive symptomology: mind wandering about the past and future

Cole

Tubbs

2021

Psychological Research

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Purpose Obsessive and compulsive tendencies are known to occur in the general population and involve worry around specific concerns (obsessions) and an urge to resolve the concern with thoughts or behaviours (compulsions). Spontaneous, but not deliberate, mind wandering experiences (when attention turns to internal mentation), have been found to predict obsessive– compulsive tendencies [Seli, P., Risko, E.F., Purdon, C. & Smilek, D. (2017). Intrusive thoughts: linking spontaneous mind wandering and OCD symptomatology. Psychological Research, 81, 392–398. 10.1007/s00426-016-0756-3]. Recent cognitive theory suggests a particular role for future-oriented spontaneous thought in obsessive–compulsive (OC) symptoms. Thus, we hypothesised that future-oriented rather than past-oriented spontaneous mind wandering would predict OC symptoms, such that more future-oriented mind wandering would be associated with increases in OC symptoms. Methods In an online survey design (nonclinical sample of 104 adults), participants completed three measures: Mind wandering: Spontaneous (MW-S) and Deliberate (MW-D) (Carriere, Seli & Smilek, 2013); Involuntary Autobiographical Memory Inventory (Berntsen, Rubin & Salgado, 2015 ); and Dimensional Obsessive–Compulsive Scale (DOCS) (Abramowitz et al., 2010). We adopted a linear regression approach to examine our hypotheses. Results We provided the first replication of the finding that OC symptoms are predicted by the frequency of spontaneous (but not deliberate) mind wandering, with an underlying positive relationship. Additionally, we found that temporality of spontaneous thought had different predictive effects as a function of the dimension of OC symptoms (i.e., responsibility, unacceptable thoughts, need for symmetry/completeness). Conclusions We found moderate support for our temporality hypothesis, which highlights how the construct of temporality can add to our understanding of OC symptoms. The present study also adds to recent conceptual debates regarding mind wandering. We suggest new cognitive and methodological approaches to enhance the understanding of obsessive–compulsive disorder, opening new avenues for clinical and experimental research.

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Section: Aims and Hypotheses Of The Current Studymentioning

confidence: 64%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Predictors Of Obsessive–compulsive Symptomology: Mind Wandering About the Past And Futurementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mind Wandering: An Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mind Wandering: An Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predictors of obsessive–compulsive symptomology: mind wandering about the past and future

Cole

Tubbs

2021

Psychological Research

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Health Anxiety

Rask

Gehrt

Rimvall

et al. 2020

Zeitschrift für Psychologie

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Abstract. Health anxiety, characterized by excessive concern about one’s health, is a serious and costly public health problem. The disorder might become chronic if left untreated. Unfortunately many patients do not receive timely or proper treatment due to sparse treatment resources. Also, existing treatment programs, though effective for many, do not work for all. This paper discusses the conceptualization of health anxiety and future directions based on novel research findings. These include: (i) the content and characteristics of autobiographical memories and episodic future thoughts in severe health anxiety, (ii) related concepts such as cyberchondria with excessive Internet browsing on health issues and health anxiety by proxy, where parents display and might confer health anxiety towards their children, (iii) an epidemiological perspective on the association between health anxiety and subclinical psychotic experiences in preadolescence. Exploring these new dimensions could have important implications for the further development of preventive strategies and effective treatment.

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Conscious thought during the resting state in patients with severe health anxiety and patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder.

Gehrt¹,

Frostholm²,

Pallesen³

et al. 2020

Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice

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The resting state is a commonly used paradigm in neuroimaging studies that has demonstrated differences in functional connectivity during rest in anxiety disorders, compared to healthy controls. Surprisingly, the psychological aspects (e.g., thoughts, feelings) during the resting state have largely been ignored in clinical populations, while increasingly studied in healthy populations. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study to examine the cognitive and affective experiences of resting state cognition in patients with psychiatric disorders. In the present study, 31 patients with severe health anxiety, 32 patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) and 32 control participants completed a 3-min resting state task, followed by a standardized questionnaire developed specifically to assess thoughts and feelings experienced during the resting period. Compared to healthy controls, both patient groups reported more discontinuity of mind, more negative feelings, more health concern and less comfort during rest. Patients with OCD reported more visual thought than the other groups. When controlling for depressive symptoms, patients with severe health anxiety reported more health concern than did patients with OCD. The study highlights the importance and informative value of examining qualities of resting state cognition (e.g., the subjective feeling of reduced control over one’s thoughts, experiencing negative feelings) in health anxiety and OCD, and introduces psychological assessment of resting state cognition as a viable paradigm in the study of clinical disorders.

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Autobiographical Memory and Episodic Future Thinking in Severe Health Anxiety: A Comparison with Obsessive–Compulsive Disorder

Cited by 6 publications

References 48 publications

Predictors of obsessive–compulsive symptomology: mind wandering about the past and future

Predictors of obsessive–compulsive symptomology: mind wandering about the past and future

Health Anxiety

Conscious thought during the resting state in patients with severe health anxiety and patients with obsessive–compulsive disorder.

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