In this paper Rachman's concept of emotional processing was extended and a model highlighting the psychological operations underpinning processing was specified. Using this model, the aim was to investigate, by means of a questionnaire, whether patients with panic disorder (n=50) have more emotional processing difficulties than two samples of healthy controls (London, n=406; Aberdeen, n=125). T...

Little is known about the prevalence of panic attacks in PTSD and their influence on symptom severity and disability. Utilizing the National Comorbidity Survey-Replication data, respondents meeting DSM-IV criteria for past year PTSD (n=203) with and without comorbid panic attacks were compared across various dimensions. Past year panic attacks were found among 35% of the sample and were associa...

Statistical methods for detecting changes in longitudinal time series of psychophysiological data are limited. ANOVA and mixed models are not designed to detect the existence, timing, or duration of unknown changes in such data. Change point (CP) analysis was developed to detect distinct changes in time series data. Preliminary reports using CP analysis for fMRI data are promising. Here, we ill...

We prospectively examined the relationship between individuals' belief in a just world and their desire for revenge against the perpetrators of the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States. Eighty-three undergraduate students who had completed a measure of just-world beliefs prior to the terrorist attacks were assessed approximately 2 months following the attacks. The more stron...

The current study tested whether "suffocation sensations" (respiratory loads) are automatically evaluated in a negative way by people fearing these sensations. It was found that, after having been primed with a slight respiratory load, participants with high suffocation fear (n=15) reacted more quickly to suffocation words and more slowly to positive words than participants with low suffocation...

Some data suggest that panic patients with extensive agoraphobia (PDA) display more intense respiratory distress during their panic attacks than Panic disorder (PD) patients. However, no studies have determined if PDA patients also show heightened sensitivity to a respiratory challenge compared to PD patients. The current study examined the differential emotional responding to hyperventilation ...

Patients 115 patients who were 18–65 years of age (mean age 41 y, 57% women), met DSM-IV criteria for panic disorder with >1 panic attack in the past month, spoke English, and had a telephone. Exclusion criteria were presence of illnesses that were life threatening or limited patient participation, current psychiatric treatment, or disability benefit claims. Follow up was 80% at 6 months and 79...

Recent studies have demonstrated that individuals with a history of uncued panic attacks exhibit heightened difficulties in emotion regulation, including experiential avoidance, emotional non-acceptance, and lack of emotional clarity. The purpose of this study was to extend these findings by examining whether the fear of bodily sensations predicted the presence of experiential avoidance and emo...

Participants with elevated anxiety sensitivity and a history of panic attacks were compared to a low anxiety comparison group with respect to physiological and subjective reactivity to false heart-rate feedback and reactivity to a priming procedure. Whereas accurate heart-rate feedback elicited minimal responses, participants across groups showed significant physiological and subjective respons...

In a sample of 28 members of an agoraphobia self-help group, each patient reported a history of spontaneous panic attacks. The onset of panic attacks preceded the development of agoraphobic restrictions by an average of9 yr. and 79:, of the sample attributed the development of their agoraphobia to their experience of panics. These results provide the first empirical support for the hypothesis t...