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Negative priming for threatening vs. non-threatening information in body dysmorphic disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 June 2014

Sabine Wilhelm ,
Ulrike Buhlmann  and
Richard J McNally
Sabine Wilhelm*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown Harvard Medical School, Boston
Ulrike Buhlmann
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown Harvard Medical School, Boston
Richard J McNally
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
*
Sabine Wilhelm PhD, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Building 149, 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, Tel: (617) 724-6146; Fax: (617) 726-4078; E-mail: wilhelm@psych.mgh.harvard.edu
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Abstract

Background:

Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) suffer from unpleasant, repetitive thoughts about imagined defects in appearance which are difficult to control.

Objective:

The purpose of this study was to test for deficits in cognitive inhibition in BDD.

Methods:

To test for deficits in cognitive inhibition in BDD, we applied a negative priming paradigm. Specifically, we explored whether BDD patients exhibit greater deficits in cognitive inhibition when lexical targets are threatening than when they are non-threatening.

Results:

Surprisingly, BDD patients exhibited deficits in cognitive inhibition only for non-threatening but not for threatening information.

Conclusions:

Although BDD patients often describe their negative thoughts about their appearance as distressing, they may experience them as valid and thus may not try to control them.

Keywords

body dysmorphic disordercognitive inhibitionnegative priming
Type
Research Article
Information
Acta Neuropsychiatrica , Volume 15 , Issue 4 , August 2003 , pp. 180 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 Blackwell Munksgaard

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