Content specificity of attention bias to threat in anxiety disorders: A meta-analysis
Anxiety; Attention; Anxiety Disorders - psychology; Psychology; THREAT; Attention bias modification; Clinical; CONSCIOUS AWARENESS; EMOTIONAL STROOP; GENERALIZED SOCIAL PHOBIA; OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER; PANIC DISORDER; PHYSICAL THREAT; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; PREATTENTIVE BIAS; PREFRONTAL CORTEX ACTIVATION; SELECTIVE ATTENTION
Despite the established evidence for threat-related attention bias in anxiety, the mechanisms underlying this bias remain unclear. One important unresolved question is whether disorder-congruent threats capture attention to a greater extent than do more general or disorder-incongruent threat stimuli. Evidence for attention bias specificity in anxiety would implicate involvement of previous learning and memory processes in threat-related attention bias, whereas lack of content specificity would point to perturbations in more generic attention processes. Enhanced clarity of mechanism could have clinical implications for the stimuli types used in Attention Bias Modification Treatments (ABMT). Content specificity of threat-related attention bias in anxiety and potential moderators of this effect were investigated. A systematic search identified 37 samples from 29 articles (N=866). Relevant data were extracted based on specific coding rules, and Cohen's d effect size was used to estimate bias specificity effects. The results indicate greater attention bias toward disorder-congruent relative to disorder-incongruent threat stimuli (d=0.28, p<0.0001). This effect was not moderated by age, type of anxiety disorder, visual attention tasks, or type of disorder-incongruent stimuli. No evidence of publication bias was observed. Implications for threat bias in anxiety and ABMT are discussed.
2015-02
Pergamin-HL; Naim R; Bakermans-Kranenburg MJ; van Lizendoorn MH; Bar-Haim Y
Clinical Psychology Review
2015
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2014.10.005" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1016/j.cpr.2014.10.005</a>
Attention Bias Modification Treatment for Pediatric Anxiety Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Depression; Management; Children; Diagnosis; Adolescents; Anxieties; Attentional bias; Care and treatment; PSYCHIATRY; THREAT; Anxiety in children; Child & adolescent psychiatry; childhood; Clinical outcomes; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS; INDIVIDUALS; Influence; MANIPULATION; VULNERABILITY
Objective: While attention bias modification (ABM) is a promising novel treatment for anxiety disorders, clinical trial data remain restricted to adults. The authors examined whether ABM induces greater reductions in pediatric anxiety symptoms and symptom severity than multiple control training interventions. Method: From a target sample of 186 treatment-seeking children at a hospital-based child anxiety clinic, 40 patients with an ongoing anxiety disorder who met all inclusion criteria were enrolled in the study. Children were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: ABM designed to shift attention away from threat; placebo attention training using stimuli identical to those in the ABM condition; and placebo attention training using only neutral stimuli. All participants completed four weekly 480-trial sessions (1,920 total trials). Before and after the attention training sessions, children's clinical status was determined via semi-structured interviews and questionnaires. Reduction in the number of anxiety symptoms and their severity was compared across the three groups. Results: Change in the number of anxiety symptoms and their severity differed across the three conditions. This reflected significant reductions in the number of anxiety symptoms and symptom severity in the ABM condition but not in the placebo attention training or placebo-neutral condition. Conclusions: ABM, compared with two control conditions, reduces pediatric anxiety symptoms and severity. Further study of efficacy and underlying mechanisms is warranted. (Am J Psychiatry 2012; 169:213-220)
Eldar S; Apter A; Lotan D; Perez-Edgar K; Naim R; Fox NA; Pine DS; Bar-Haim Y
American Journal Of Psychiatry
2012
Article information provided for research and reference use only. PedPalASCNET does not hold any rights over the resource listed here. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).
Journal Article
<a href="http://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.11060886" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">10.1176/appi.ajp.2011.11060886</a>