Intolerance of uncertainty, anxiety sensitivity, health anxiety, and anxiety disorder symptoms in youth

Differentiating the roles of intolerance of uncertainty and negative beliefs about worry across emotional disorders

“…Overall, the results of our current study highlight the distinct associations between IU and NBW with emotional disorder symptoms. Our results also contribute to the existing body of literature demonstrating that prospective and inhibitory aspects of IU differentiate emotional disorder symptoms and are meaningfully different constructs (Boelen & Lenferink, 2018;Bottesi et al, 2019;Fetzner et al, 2013Fetzner et al, , 2014Hong & Lee, 2015;Jensen et al, 2016;Mahoney & McEvoy, 2012a;McEvoy & Mahoney, 2011;Raines et al, 2019;Shihata et al, 2018;Wright et al, 2016). Further, our results demonstrate the importance of considering NBW in addition to IU when examining relationships with emotional disorders and support the idea that NBW are both transdiagnostic and specific across various emotional disorders (Khawaja & McMahon, 2011;Koerner et al, 2015;van der Heiden et al, 2010).…”

“…For symptoms of both post-traumatic stress disorder and illness anxiety disorder, both IU and NBW did not account for unique variance once the other emotional disorder symptoms were included. While previous research has indicated that post-traumatic stress disorder and illness anxiety disorder are associated with both prospective IU and inhibitory IU (Boelen et al, 2016;Fetzner et al, 2013Fetzner et al, , 2014Raines et al, 2019;Wright et al, 2016) and NBW (Bailey & Wells, 2015;Roussis & Wells, 2006), these studies have tended to include few measures of other emotional disorder symptoms. Therefore, the apparent associations between IU and NBW with posttraumatic stress disorder and illness anxiety disorder might be due to mutual associations with the other emotional disorders.…”

Intolerance of uncertainty as a factor linking obsessive-compulsive symptoms, health anxiety and concerns about the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the United States

“…Our results also evaluated a potential mechanism connecting OCD and health anxiety symptoms to excessive concerns about COVID-19: difficulty tolerating uncertainty. Substantial past work has suggested that IU is a contributing factor to both OCD and health anxiety symptoms ( Fergus, & Bardeen, 2013 ; Fergus & Valentiner, 2011a ; Tolin, Abramowitz, Brigidi, & Foa, 2003 ; Sarawgi, Oglesby, & Cougle, 2013 ; Wright, Levell, & Carleton, 2016 ). Here we also found a positive correlation between IU and fear of COVID-19 (similar to a past report linking IU to anxiety about H1N1; Taha et al, 2014 and a recent report linking IU to “COVID Stress Syndrome”; Taylor et al, 2020b ).…”

“…(p. 31, Carleton, 2016 ). IU has been implicated as an important contributing factor to both health anxiety ( Fergus, & Bardeen, 2013 ; Fergus & Valentiner, 2011a ; Wright, Levell, & Carleton, 2016 ) and OCD symptoms ( Tolin, Abramowitz, Brigidi, & Foa, 2003 ; Sarawgi, Oglesby, & Cougle, 2013 ). At a behavioral level, individuals high in IU often attempt to avoid uncertainty, or respond to it in maladaptive ways, such as worry and excessive certainty-seeking behaviors (e.g., checking and reassurance-seeking; Carleton et al, 2012 ).…”

Loss anticipation and outcome during theMonetary Incentive Delay Task: a neuroimaging systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Indeed, several studies have shown that individuals with major depressive disorder and schizophrenia both lack motivation for rewards ( Takamura et al, 2017 ; Whitton, Treadway & Pizzagalli, 2015 ), whereas individuals with substance use disorders have uncontrolled motivation for substance seeking but decreased motivation for alternative natural rewards ( Baker et al, 2017 ). There is also evidence individuals with anxiety disorders are characterized by harm avoidance ( Ottenbreit, Dobson & Quigley, 2014 ; Wright, Lebell & Carleton, 2016 ), whereas individuals with antisocial behavior tend to be insensitive to punishment ( Byrd, Loeber & Pardini, 2014 ; Loney et al, 2003 ).…”