Vanderbilt University, Department of Psychology, 111 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37240, United States.
Behav Res Ther. 2011 Nov;49(11):756-62. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2011.08.003. Epub 2011 Aug 11.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are both defined by excessive negatively-valenced cognitions. Although obsessional thoughts are considered essential to OCD and perseverative worry is considered essential to GAD, these excessive cognitions have been found to co-occur in both disorders. Accordingly, a common diathesis may influence the emergence of excessive thoughts in both disorders. The present study examined deficits in attentional control as a cognitive vulnerability that may contribute to both obsessional thought and perseverative worry. Patients with OCD (n=30), GAD (n=29), and non-clinical controls (NCC; n=29) completed measures of obsessional thoughts, perseverative worry, and attentional control. Deficits in self-reported attentional control were found in both OCD and GAD relative to the NCC. However, attentional control was only related to excessive cognition in the GAD patient group, where deficits were associated with increased perseverative worry. Mediational modeling suggested that trait anxiety mediated the relationship between attentional control and perseverative worry in GAD. Implications of these findings for conceptualizing the role of attentional control in the genesis of excessive cognitions in OCD and GAD are discussed.
强迫症（OCD）和广泛性焦虑症（GAD）都被定义为过度的负面认知。虽然强迫性思维被认为是 OCD 的核心特征，而持续的担忧被认为是 GAD 的核心特征，但这些过度的认知在两种疾病中都有共同出现。因此，共同的素质可能会影响两种疾病中过度思维的出现。本研究考察了注意力控制缺陷作为一种认知易感性，可能导致强迫性思维和持续担忧。30 名强迫症患者（OCD）、29 名广泛性焦虑症患者（GAD）和 29 名非临床对照组（NCC）完成了强迫性思维、持续担忧和注意力控制的测量。与 NCC 相比，OCD 和 GAD 患者的自我报告注意力控制缺陷。然而，注意力控制仅与 GAD 患者组的过度认知有关，该组的缺陷与持续担忧的增加有关。中介模型表明，特质焦虑在 GAD 中注意力控制与持续担忧之间的关系中起中介作用。讨论了这些发现对理解注意力控制在 OCD 和 GAD 中过度认知发生中的作用的意义。
