engleski

The looming cognitive style and anxiety sensitivity as correlates of different coping strategies in panic disorder and non-clinical population – implications for CBT

While contemporary research findings indicate that individuals with panic disorder exhibit maladaptive coping, the role of coping in the pathogenesis of panic remains unclear. In addition to anxiety sensitivity and anxiety, the looming cognitive style also seems to have a role in the cognitive enhancement of panic symptoms and stress reactivity. The goal of the current research was to explore whether different risk factors for panic disorder contribute differently to specific coping strategies in individuals with and without panic disorder. Thirty individuals with panic disorder and thirty non-clinical participants completed The Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire (LMSQ), the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) and certain subscales of the Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (COPE). A looming cognitive style was significantly related to the suppression of a competing activities strategy (r=.47) in people with panic disorder and significantly related to behavioral disengagement (r=.49) and use of emotional social support (r=.38) strategies in non-clinical participants. Anxiety sensitivity shared no significant relationship with any of the examined coping strategies in participants with panic disorder, while it was significantly related to behavioral disengagement (r=.75), need for emotional control (r=.43) and alienation (r=.43) strategies in healthy participants. People with panic disorder utilized more avoidant strategies and less humor in coping with stress than the comparison group. On the whole, different cognitive risk factors associated with panic disorder seem to predict different stress coping strategies in individuals with panic disorder and healthy individuals. Individuals with panic disorder seem to cope with stress using more avoidant and emotional distancing strategies such as denial, as well as less humor. Encouraging a client with panic disorder to adopt different stress coping strategies in relation to different cognitive vulnerability traits, in both qualitative (e.g. humor) and quantitative terms (coping flexibility), may further contribute to reducing stress generation in these individuals.

anxiety ; anxiety sensitivity ; looming cognitive style ; panic disorder

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