a Department of Family and Community Medicine , University of Cincinnati College of Medicine , Cincinnati , OH , USA.
Aging Ment Health. 2014;18(3):326-39. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2013.868405. Epub 2014 Jan 27.
Intrusive thoughts and images are common across the adult lifespan, but vary in their consequences. Understanding age-related experiences with intrusive thoughts is important for identifying risk and protective factors for intrusive thought problems across the adult lifespan. This study characterized age trajectories for six aspects of experiences with intrusive thoughts using Internet data collection.
Participants (N = 1427; ages 18-87) were randomly assigned to suppress (i.e. keep out of mind) or monitor an intrusive thought for one minute, and then later to monitor the thought for a second minute. Participants tracked thought recurrences during each thinking period, then reported their positive and negative affects following each thinking period, as well as their effort expended in suppressing the thought and perceived difficulty controlling the intrusive thought. Multilevel modeling and generalized estimating equations modeled the continuous relationships between age and each dependent variable.
As expected, older age was associated with less decline in positive affect while engaging with an intrusive thought. Interestingly, older age was also associated with a sharper rise and fall of negative affect. Suppression effort increased linearly with age (though perceived difficulty did not). Finally, no age differences were found in either the frequency or duration of the thought's recurrence, adding to previous evidence that older adults function similarly to younger adults in their control of intrusive thoughts, despite certain age-related declines in cognitive functioning.
These findings suggest a dissociation between age-related changes in emotional versus cognitive characteristics of engaging with intrusive thoughts.
侵入性思维和意象在整个成年期都很常见，但后果各异。了解与侵入性思维相关的年龄相关体验对于识别整个成年期侵入性思维问题的风险和保护因素非常重要。本研究使用互联网数据收集，描述了侵入性思维体验六个方面的年龄轨迹。
参与者（N=1427；年龄 18-87 岁）被随机分配抑制（即不让思维进入脑海）或监测一分钟的侵入性思维，然后再监测该思维一分钟。参与者在每个思维期间跟踪思维的反复出现，然后报告每个思维期间的积极和消极影响，以及他们抑制思维和控制侵入性思维的努力和感知难度。多层次建模和广义估计方程模型化了年龄与每个因变量之间的连续关系。
正如预期的那样，与参与侵入性思维相关的积极影响下降较少与年龄有关。有趣的是，年龄也与消极影响的急剧上升和下降有关。抑制努力与年龄呈线性增加（尽管感知难度没有）。最后，在思维的复发频率或持续时间方面没有发现年龄差异，这增加了先前的证据，即尽管认知功能随着年龄的增长而某些方面下降，但老年人在控制侵入性思维方面与年轻人的功能相似。
这些发现表明，与侵入性思维相关的情绪与认知特征的年龄相关变化之间存在分离。
