Positive affect regulation in anxiety disorders

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.02.001Get rights and content

Abstract

Although individual differences exist in how people respond to positive affect (PA), little research addresses PA regulation in people with anxiety disorders. The goal of this study was to provide information about responses to PA in people with symptoms of social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The tendency to dampen PA and the ability to savor PA were examined in an undergraduate sample. Analyses examined the unique links between these reactions and symptoms of anxiety disorders, controlling for a history of depression. Given the high comorbidity of depression and anxiety, exploratory analyses further controlled for generalized anxiety disorder. Results demonstrated that one or both measures of affect regulation made a unique and substantial contribution to predicting each anxiety disorder except agoraphobia, above and beyond prediction afforded by symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Clinical implications and areas for future research are discussed.

Section snippets

Method

Participants were 248 undergraduate students (54% female) at the University of Miami. Measures were administered in large group sessions in partial fulfillment of a course requirement. Age and ethnicity information was not collected in connection with responses, but the sample presumably did not differ materially from the University of Miami's student body, which is ethnically diverse (23% Hispanic, 6% African American, 8% Asian, 55% non-Hispanic White, and 7% other).

Results

Bivariate correlations among symptom indices are shown in Table 1. As one would expect, symptom indices were positively correlated. The correlations between symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder with other anxiety disorders and depression were particularly robust. The social phobia scale also had robust correlations with the OCD and agoraphobia scales. As expected, the panic disorder and agoraphobia scales were substantially correlated with one another.

Correlations among the subscales of the

Discussion

This study examined self-reported regulatory responses to PA among people with symptoms of anxiety disorders. Consistent with previous findings, lifetime depressive symptoms were independently related to measures of downward regulation of PA. Even after controlling for these lifetime depressive symptoms, tendencies to endorse dampening of PA were also positively related to symptoms of panic disorder, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and OCD. Similarly, after controlling for lifetime

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