Worry and Rumination in Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Abstract

Ample work has already been conducted on worry and rumination as negative thought processes involved in the etiology of most of the anxiety and mood related disorders. However, minimal effort has been exerted to investigate whether one type of negative thought process can make way for another type of negative thought process, and if so, how it subsequently results in experiencing a host of symptoms reflective of one or the other type of psychological distress. Therefore, the present study was taken up to investigate whether rumination mediates the relationship between worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and between worry and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in two clinical groups. Self-report questionnaires tapping worry, rumination, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) were administered to a clinical sample of 60 patients aged 30-40. Worry, rumination, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) correlated substantially with each other, however, rumination did not mediate the relationship between worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and between worry and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). We also analyzed differences of outcome variables within two clinical groups. These results showed that worry and rumination were significantly different between GAD and OCD groups.

Getting “Stuck” in the Future or the Past: Relationships between Dimensions of Time Perspective, Executive Functions, and Repetitive Negative Thinking in Anxiety

“…The patient group reported substantially more rumination as well as worry, which adds to the relatively large body of knowledge that has identified rumination and worry as clinically relevant facets of anxiety disorders [5, 16]. …”

“…Both worry and rumination are present to a significant degree in anxiety disorders as well as associated with anxiety in nonclinical samples [16-18]. They are part of the same higher-order construct (repetitive negative thinking) and share many common features but can be disentangled on the basis of temporal orientation, with worry being more future focused while rumination is more focused on the past [for a review, see 19].…”

The erring brain: Error‐related negativity as an endophenotype for OCD—A review and meta‐analysis

“…Increased ERN amplitudes are not OCD specific and were observed in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD, e.g., Weinberg, Olvet, & Hajcak, ; Xiao et al, ), social anxiety (e.g., Endrass et al, ), health anxiety (Riesel et al, ), and less consistently in depression (Gillan et al, ; Manoach & Agam, ). These disorders are frequently comorbid (Kessler et al, ; Krueger & Markon, ; Ruscio et al, ) and share clinical features such as heightened harm avoidance (Kampman, Viikki, Jarventausta, & Leinonen, ), worry (Dar & Iqbal, ; Yook, Kim, Suh, & Lee, ), reassurance seeking and checking behavior (Halldorsson & Salkovskis, ; Kobori & Salkovskis, ; Weinberg, Kotov, & Proudfit, ). These symptoms have also been related to hyperactive neural error signals (e.g., Cavanagh & Shackman, ; Moser et al, ; Weinberg, Kotov et al, ).…”

Examining the Relationship between Self-rumination and Happiness: The Mediating and Moderating Role of Subjective Vitality

“…There is remarkable research clarity in this area except for a few research studies (e.g., Wells, 1995). Previous studies have examined the relationship between rumination and psychological disorders such as depression (Abela & Hankin, 2011;NolenHoeksema & Harrell, 2002;Watkins et al, 2007;Teismann et al, 2014), anxiety (Dar & Iqbal, 2015;Nolen-Hoeksema, 2000;Rood, Roelofs, Bogels, & Alloy, 2010;Verstraeten Bijttebier, Vasey, & Raes, 2011), worry (Dar & Iqbal, 2015;Watkins, Moulds, & Mackintosh, 2005;Watkins, 2004), uncertainty (Ward, Lyubomirsky, Sousa, & Nolen-Hoeksema, 2003), sadness and dysphoria (Conway, Mendelson, Giannopoulos, Csank, & Holm, 2004), neuroticism (Bagby & Parker, 2001), bulimia (Nolen-Hoeksema, Stice, Wade, & Bohon, 2007), alcoholism (Caselli et al, 2010;Spada & Wells, 2005;Spada, Zandvoort, & Wells, 2007), obsessive-compulsive symptoms (Dar & Iqbal, 2015;Wahl, Ertle, Bohne, Zurowski, & Kordon, 2011), post-traumatic stress disorder (Michael, Halligan, Clark, & Ehlers, 2007), hallucinationproneness (Jones & Fernyhough, 2007). However, the issue of how subjective vitality mediates between self-rumination and happiness has not been tested.…”