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Biomedical subjects

L G Lundh

Publications and source records attributed to L G Lundh.

14 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Attentional and memory bias for emotional information in crime victims with acute posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A combined emotional Stroop, implicit memory (tachistoscopic identification) and explicit memory (free recall) task with three types of words (trauma-related, positive, and neutral) and two exposure conditions (subliminal and supraliminal) was administered to 39 crime victims with acute posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and 39 age- and sex-matched controls. PTSD subjects showed supraliminal Stroop interference for trauma-related words and a similar effect on positive words. A specific explicit memory bias was found for trauma-related words among the PTSD subjects, but no preattentive bias on the subliminally presented words, nor any implicit memory bias. Findings suggest that acute PTSD subjects have an attentional and memory bias for threat-related material. Methodological limitations of the study are reviewed, and it is proposed that further studies are needed in order to elucidate whether acute PTSD Ss display a preattentive and implicit memory bias for trauma-related material.

Attention↗
PubMed2001

Alexithymia, emotion, and somatic complaints.

Alexithymia, by definition, involves difficulties in identifying and describing emotions and has been assumed to be associated with somatization (i.e., a tendency to express psychological distress in somatic rather than emotional form). Empirical research so far, however, has produced no convincing evidence that alexithymia is more associated with somatic complaints than with emotional complaints or that alexithymia correlates with somatic complaints when negative affect is controlled for. In the present study, alexithymia, as measured by the TAS-20, showed no association with somatic complaints in a community sample of 137 individuals when trait anxiety and depression were controlled. Alexithymia did correlate negatively with positive affect, and positively with negative affect. The former association, however, was much more robust, whereas the latter association was found mainly on subjective trait measures of negative affect (as distinct from state measures and more objective trait measures derived from daily recordings during an 8-week period). It is suggested that the association between alexithymia and lack of positive affect deserves more attention in future research.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Insomnia as an interaction between sleep-interfering and sleep-interpreting processes.

The present paper reviews theories and empirical research concerning the role of psychological processes in insomnia. It is argued that two kinds of psychological processes are involved in insomnia: sleep-interfering processes and sleep-interpreting processes. A theoretical model is sketched, where it is argued that psychological vulnerability factors may predispose the individual to (1) respond with sleep-interfering processes to stressful life events, and to (2) engage in dysfunctional sleep-interpreting processes. Examples of the first kind of variables are arousability, slow recuperation after stress, worrying, and emotional conflicts in relation to significant others; examples of the latter are sleep-related beliefs, attitudes, and perfectionistic standards.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Tinnitus and cognitive interference: a stroop paradigm study.

The aim of this study was to investigate cognitive interference caused by tinnitus by means of a modified version of the Stroop color-word test. In a mixed-design study, the performances of tinnitus patients (n = 23) and healthy controls with normal hearing (n = 23) were compared on three versions of the Stroop test: the original version, a modified version including physical-threat words, and a tinnitus version for which tinnitus words (descriptors of tinnitus; e.g., peep) were derived empirically. Matched control conditions (words) were included for all three versions, yielding a total of six screens that were presented on a computer. Participants in the control group were matched with the patients for age and gender. Main dependent measures were performance on the Stroop tests in terms of total time for completing each test. Also included were the Tinnitus Questionnaire (TQ), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the state version of the Spielberger Trait State Anxiety Inventory (STAI-S), and a subtest from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale measuring verbal ability. Results showed that tinnitus patients performed significantly slower on all six test conditions. The classical Stroop color-word interference was replicated in both groups. Also, an effect for physical-threat words was found for both groups. Our expected tinnitus word interference could not be established. Patients scored significantly higher than controls on the BDI and the STAI, but these measures did not correlate with the Stroop results. In conclusion, the results indicate that tinnitus patients have impaired cognitive performance overall, as measured by these variations of the Stroop paradigm, but hearing impairment cannot be excluded as a possible confounder.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

A Swedish translation of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: cross-validation of the factor structure.

The purpose of this study was to develop a new Swedish translation of the twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and to examine if the theoretical structure that underlies the factor structure of the English version of the TAS-20 could be recovered in this Swedish translation of the instrument. A sample of 157 undergraduate students of psychology was tested. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the previously established three-factor TAS-20 model was found to be replicable in this sample. In addition, the Swedish translation of the TAS-20 showed adequate internal reliability. The present study also illustrates the importance of using back translation methodology when transposing psychometric instruments from one language to another.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Perfectionism and self-consciousness in social phobia and panic disorder with agoraphobia.

Social phobics were compared to patients with panic disorder with agoraphobia and normal controls on perfectionism and self-consciousness. On concern over mistakes and doubts about action, social phobics scored higher than patients with panic disorder. Social phobics also demonstrated a higher level of public self-consciousness than patients with panic disorder and when this difference was controlled for the significant differences on perfectionism disappeared. Within each patient group, however, perfectionism was more robustly related to social anxiety than was public self-consciousness, which replicates the findings of Saboonchi and Lundh [Saboonchi, F. & Lundh, L. G. (1997). Perfectionism, self-consciousness and anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 22, 921-928.] from a non-clinical sample. The results are discussed in terms of public self-consciousness being a differentiating characteristic of the more severe kind of social anxiety which is typical of social phobia.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Preattentive bias for emotional information in panic disorder with agoraphobia.

A combined emotional Stroop and implicit memory (tachistoscopic identification) task with 3 types of words (panic-related, interpersonal threat, and neutral words) and 2 exposure conditions (subliminal, supraliminal) was administered to 35 patients with panic disorder and 35 age- and sex-matched controls. The patients showed Stroop interference for panic-related words both sub- and supraliminally and a similar but not equally robust effect on interpersonal threat words. On the tachistoscopic identification task, the patients identified more panic-related words than the controls did but showed no implicit memory bias effect. The patients' subliminal Stroop interference for panic-related words was found to correlate with trait anxiety and depression, although not with anxiety sensitivity.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Recognition bias for safe faces in panic disorder with agoraphobia.

Panic patients with agoraphobia were compared with normal controls on tasks of face recognition. The subjects were presented with 20 photos, and were required to make a judgement of the persons on the photos; shortly afterwards they were unexpectedly presented with a recognition task. In the first study, one task was to judge whether the persons on the photos were critical or accepting: unlike social phobics (Lundh and Ost, 1996b, Behaviour Research and Therapy, 34, 787-794), panic patients showed no bias for critical vs accepting faces on the recognition task. In a secondary study, the task was to judge whether the persons on the photos were 'safe' or 'unsafe', i.e. whether they could be relied on if the subject would need help in some situation. The results showed a recognition bias for safe vs neutral faces in panic patients. The index of recognition bias for safe faces correlated with avoidance of feared situations when accompanied by others, as measured by the Mobility Inventory. The possibility that memory bias in emotional disorders is a function of basic concern, or functional importance, rather than positive/negative valence is discussed. The results are also discussed in terms of degree of elaboration, exposure duration of the stimuli, and the generality of the findings.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Explicit and implicit memory bias in social phobia. The role of subdiagnostic type.

Fourty-five patients with social phobia and 45 normal controls were compared on explicit memory (cued recall) and implicit memory (word stem completion) for positive, neutral, social threat, and physical threat words. Although there were no significant differences between the social phobics and the normal controls, the subgroup of patients with non-generalized social phobia showed an implicit memory bias for social threat words. The results are discussed in terms of a critical analysis of the concept of implicit memory bias, which is operationalized as the difference between a bias on primed and unprimed words, and where the latter represents a "baseline bias". In the present study, this baseline word completion bias for social threat words showed a strong negative correlation (r = -0.72) with the implicit memory bias for social threat words, and showed positive correlations with several psychopathology-related measures among the social phobics. It is suggested that future research should consider results on both implicit memory bias and its corresponding baseline bias. The possibility is discussed that implicit memory bias and baseline bias may serve as indexes of externally and internally generated priming effects, and that the relative contributions of external and internal priming may differ in different subtypes of social phobia.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Explicit and implicit memory bias in panic disorder with agoraphobia.

Thirty patients with a diagnosis of panic disorder with agoraphobia and 30 normal controls were compared on explicit memory (cued recall) and implicit memory (word stem completion) for positive, neutral, social threat, and physical threat words. The panic patients showed an explicit memory bias, but no implicit memory bias, for physical threat words. The index of explicit memory bias for physical threat words was found to correlate with anxiety sensitivity and degree of agoraphobic fear and avoidance. The index of baseline bias for threat words on the word completion task, on the other hand, correlated with trait anxiety. Although there were no correlations between explicit and implicit memory bias for physical threat words, explicit memory bias for physical threat words correlated with explicit memory bias indexes for positive words and social threat words. The results are discussed in terms of the functional role of an explicit memory bias for physically threatening events in panic disorder. The negative results on implicit memory bias are discussed in relation to earlier studies, the use of different implicit memory tasks, and the role of baseline bias on implicit memory tasks. Finally, the hypothesis is suggested that explicit and implicit memory bias for emotional information may represent two different styles of information processing, which serve as vulnerability factors for different emotional disorders.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Recognition bias for critical faces in social phobics.

Social phobics were compared with normal controls on a task of face recognition. The subjects were presented with 20 photos, and were required to judge whether the persons on the photos were critical or accepting; five minutes later they were unexpectedly presented with a recognition task. The social phobics recognized more of the critical than the accepting faces, whereas the controls tended to recognize more accepting than critical faces. The results are discussed in terms of a possible recognition bias or response bias, and in terms of differences in the encoding activities of the subjects. It is also argued that research on memory in emotional disorders should make more use of concrete non-verbal stimuli (like faces) in the future, since subjects' encoding activities are more amenable to experimental control with such stimuli than with verbal stimuli.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Insufficient sleep in the general population.

A questionnaire was sent out to a randomly selected, age (20-34, 35-49, and 50-64 years) and sex stratified sample of 600 adult inhabitants in Uppsala County, Sweden. Overall response rate was 68%. The questionnaire comprised questions about sleep and sleep complaints. Subjects were also asked to rate the degree of a number of proposed causes and consequences of insufficient sleep, in accordance with how they had perceived them when they had experienced insufficient sleep. Results showed that twelve percent of the total sample fulfilled the criteria for persistent insufficient sleep (PIS), an operationally defined condition of considerable chronic sleep loss. One-half of these subjects also reported concomitant sleeping difficulties. In subjects with PIS without sleeping difficulties, the most conspicuous causes of insufficient sleep were work-related factors and simply too little time for sleep. As for the effects of insufficient sleep in subjects with PIS with concomitant sleep complaints, factors relating to somatic symptoms, dysphoric mood and impaired cognition were the most prominent, while dysphoric mood was most noticeable in subjects with PIS without sleep complaints.

Adult↗