Elhamiasl Mina, Dehghani Mohsen, Heidari Mahmood, Vancleef Linda M G, Khatibi Ali
Psychology Department, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
Section Experimental Health Psychology, Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Front Psychiatry. 2023 Jan 9;13:985125. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.985125. eCollection 2022.
Cognitive factors play an essential role in the development and maintenance of anxiety problems. Among individuals with illness anxiety problems, their interpretation of bodily symptoms is a crucial factor in the determination of their ability to regulate their emotions. The catastrophic interpretation of ambiguous bodily symptoms and changes, known as interpretation bias, in line with the failure to reappraise the symptoms in safer ways, is supposed to increase the levels of anxiety in illness-anxious individuals.
This study aimed to address the statistical limitations of the direct (self-report) measure of interpretation bias, using an indirect (online interpretation bias task) measure for assessing biased interpretations of bodily symptoms. In addition, we examined the contribution of self-report anxiety sensitivity (AS), intolerance of uncertainty (IU), interpretation bias, and reappraisal to illness anxiety problems in a subclinical population and compared it with controls with low levels of illness anxiety.
Illness-anxious individuals made more negative interpretations of ambiguous, potentially health-threatening information. They used less reappraisal to regulate their emotion. Among the measures, the physical subscale of AS and the reaction time to the safe resolution of ambiguous information were the best factors that could contribute to the differentiation between the illness-anxious individuals and non-anxious individuals.
Our findings provided further support for the biased processing of information related to physical symptoms among individuals with illness anxiety. AS-physical and safe resolutions for ambiguous situations could differentiate the illness-anxious and the control groups better than other factors. These findings suggest that a change of interpretation of ambiguous bodily symptoms among individuals suffering from chronic conditions can be a possible intervention to target anxiety and improve patients' lives.
认知因素在焦虑问题的发展和维持中起着至关重要的作用。在患有疾病焦虑问题的个体中，他们对身体症状的解读是决定其情绪调节能力的关键因素。对模糊的身体症状和变化的灾难性解读，即所谓的解读偏差，与未能以更安全的方式重新评估症状一致，被认为会增加疾病焦虑个体的焦虑水平。
本研究旨在解决解读偏差直接（自我报告）测量的统计局限性，采用间接（在线解读偏差任务）测量来评估对身体症状的偏差解读。此外，我们研究了自我报告的焦虑敏感性（AS）、不确定性不耐受（IU）、解读偏差和重新评估对亚临床人群疾病焦虑问题的影响，并将其与疾病焦虑水平较低的对照组进行比较。
疾病焦虑个体对模糊的、潜在威胁健康的信息做出了更多负面解读。他们较少使用重新评估来调节情绪。在这些测量指标中，AS的身体亚量表以及对模糊信息安全解决的反应时间是最能区分疾病焦虑个体和非焦虑个体的因素。
我们的研究结果为疾病焦虑个体对身体症状相关信息的偏差处理提供了进一步支持。AS身体方面以及对模糊情境的安全解决方法比其他因素能更好地区分疾病焦虑组和对照组。这些发现表明，改变慢性病患者对模糊身体症状的解读可能是针对焦虑并改善患者生活的一种可行干预措施。
