Cognitive processes associated with emotional disorders: implications for efficient psychological treatments

Abstract

Background: Emotional disorders are the most prevalent worldwide. Despite psychotherapies are their treatment of choice, there are difficulties to apply them property in mental health services. Since literature shows that cognitive processes are associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, more information is needed in order to improve psychological treatments.Aims: To determine the relation between cognitive factors with specific and non-specific emotional disorder symptoms in order to promote the development of accurate psychological treatments.Methods: We analyzed the relation between rumination, worry, and metacognition with generalized anxiety, panic, and depression disorder symptoms from a clinical sample of 116 individuals through correlation and linear regression analyses.Results: Although each specific disorder had a closer link with a particular cognitive process, all general emotional disorder symptoms were associated with the three cognitive factors studied. Conclusions: For "pure" disorders, targeting a concrete cognitive process might be an optimal therapeutic option. However, due to the high comorbidity among emotional disorders, we support the dissemination of the transdiagnostic treatment approach in which all cognitive factors are taken into account.

Variables Associated with Emotional Symptom Severity in Primary Care Patients: The Usefulness of a Logistic Regression Equation to Help Clinical Assessment and Treatment Decisions

“…This study had the goal of identifying variables associated with depression and anxiety symptom severity and exemplifying their potential use in clinical assessment through a logistic regression model. The regression model agrees with the results of previous research in that they indicate the value of brooding rumination, pathological worry, and negative metacognitions on uncontrollability or danger as predictors of symptom severity (Corpas et al, 2023;Sun et al, 2017;Taylor & Snyder, 2021): The higher the score on these subscales, the higher the severity of the emotional syndrome (odds ratio [OR] > 1; see Table 6). These outcomes are also in line with the fact that transdiagnostic therapies that include techniques to reduce repetitive negative thinking and restructure metacognitive beliefs are effective in reducing depression and anxiety symptomatology (Carlucci et al, 2021;Newby Variables Associated with Emotional Symptom Severity in Primary Care Patients 7 et al, 2015).…”

“…Only a few studies have investigated the relationship between any of these strategies and emotional symptoms with primary care patients, and they show an association of rumination with depression (Riihimäki et al, 2016; Talavera et al, 2018). In addition, Corpas et al (2023) found that, although each type of symptoms had a stronger association with a specific cognitive process, rumination, worry, and metacognition were associated with both emotional disorders.…”