Information processing of physical threat in hypochondriasis: an exploratory study using the Stroop paradigm

Abstract

The cognitive approaches had proposed that patients with emotional disorders show an attentional bias that favours the selective processing of information related to their problem. One of the most used procedures to explore this kind of bias is the Stroop paradigm. In the present study the selective processing of the physical threat information in hypochondriacal subjects was explored using the Stroop paradigm. The subjects were 17 hypochondriac patients, 17 panic disorder patients, and 17 normal subjects. All subjects fulfilled the five cards composing the elaborated version of the Stroop test (“os” words, neutral words, social threat words, physical threat words, and colour words), and several questionnaires (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Beck’s Depression Inventory, Hypochondriasis Scale of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Illness Attitude Scales, and Illness Behaviour Questionnaire). The specific attentional bias related to physical threat in hypochondriasis patients and panic disorder patients was confirmed. Also, the relationship between the attentional bias to physical threat and the measures that evaluate hypochondriacal concerns was observed.