Work

Fear conditioning in panic disorder: Enhanced resistance to extinction.

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: Enhanced conditionability has been proposed as a crucial factor in the etiology and maintenance of panic disorder (PD). To test this assumption, the authors of the current study examined the acquisition and extinction of conditioned responses to aversive stimuli in PD. Thirty-nine PD patients and 33 healthy control participants took part in a differential aversive conditioning experiment. A highly annoying but not painful electrical stimulus served as the unconditioned stimulus (US), and two neutral pictures were used as either the paired conditioned stimulus (CS+) or the unpaired conditioned stimulus (CS-). Results indicate that PD patients do not show larger conditioned responses during acquisition than control participants. However, in contrast to control participants, PD patients exhibited larger skin conductance responses to CS+ stimuli during extinction and maintained a more negative evaluation of them, as indicated by valence ratings obtained several times throughout the experiment. This suggests that PD patients show enhanced conditionability with respect to extinction.

Source: Journal of Abnormal Psychology

DOI: 10.1037/0021-843x.116.3.612

Authors: Tanja Michael, Jens Blechert, Noortje Vriends, Jürgen Margraf, Frank H. Wilhelm

Institution: University of Basel

Language: English

Topic: Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft, Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung