The components of cognitive vulnerability to generalized anxiety disorder

Abstract

The components of cognitive vulnerability to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were identified. We performed a comparative analysis between the cognitive profile of patients diagnosed with GAD (69 adults) and a control group with no diagnosis (69 adults). They were completed the MINI International Neuropsyquiatric Interview, the Young Schemes Questionnaire -YSQ-, the Core Beliefs Questionnaire for Personality Disorders -CCE-TP-, the Inventory of Automatic Thoughts -IPA-, and the Coping Strategies Questionnaire -EEC-M-. The cognitive profile of GAD comprised patterns of abandonment, mistrust/abuse, uncompromising standards and insufficient self-control/self-discipline. Associated personality disorders were dependent, paranoid, avoidant, schizotypal, borderline and antisocial. Cognitive distortions were filtering or selective abstraction (low scores), and significantly higher scores in polarized thinking, overgeneralization, interpretation of thought, catastrophic vision, fallacy of control, emotional reasoning and fallacy of change. Coping strategies were high aggressive reaction, expression of coping difficulty, denial, and low positive reappraisal.

Keywords

• Anxiety
• cognitive
• vulnerability
• profile
• copying strategies.