Sarah-Louise Unterschemmann , Christian Panitz , Pauline Petereit , Hannah Comtesse , Matthias F.J. Sperl , Erik M. Mueller
{"title":"Brain-heart coupling in response to imminent threat in panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and healthy controls","authors":"Sarah-Louise Unterschemmann , Christian Panitz , Pauline Petereit , Hannah Comtesse , Matthias F.J. Sperl , Erik M. Mueller","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103069","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103069","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Imminent threat does not only capture attention but also triggers defensive psychophysiological responses associated with fight-flight-freeze behavior. However, within-subject associations between central markers of attentional stimulus processing and peripheral components of early defensive activation (e.g., cardiac acceleration) are not well understood. These associations may be especially important in understanding dynamics of anxiety disorders that are characterized by cardiovascular symptoms such as panic disorder.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We analyzed data from <em>N</em> = 90 participants with panic disorder (PD), social anxiety disorder (SAD), as well as healthy controls (CG) who completed a threat conditioning paradigm with face stimuli as conditioned stimuli (CS) and an aversive white noise burst as unconditioned stimulus (US). In addition to univariate analyses of ERPs and heartbeat, single-trial EEG evoked by the noise burst at centromedial sites and heart period were used to calculate intraindividual coupling of unconditioned cortico-cardiac responses.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The noise burst evoked strong cardiac acceleration and an event-related potential with a pronounced N100 component. Importantly, the magnitude of single-trial cardiac acceleration was predicted within individuals by the preceding single-trial N100 magnitude. This cortico-cardiac coupling, but not the N100 component or cardiac acceleration per se, was enhanced in individuals with panic disorder compared to social anxiety disorder, with intermediate levels of coupling observed in healthy controls.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>The present results suggest a central role of early attentional stimulus processing in subsequent cardiac defensive responses. Furthermore, they indicate that cortico-cardiac defensive responses may be altered in individuals with panic disorder specifically, rather than in anxiety disorders in general.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"115 ","pages":"Article 103069"},"PeriodicalIF":4.5,"publicationDate":"2025-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145105067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sarah M. Kowall , Natalie Mota , Essence Perera , Nisali Muthumuni , Shay-Lee Bolton
{"title":"Conditional probability of posttraumatic stress disorder in the Canadian Armed Forces: A longitudinal study","authors":"Sarah M. Kowall , Natalie Mota , Essence Perera , Nisali Muthumuni , Shay-Lee Bolton","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103038","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103038","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be impacted by the type of trauma exposure. This is important to consider when evaluating the likelihood of having PTSD among Canadian veterans, which previous literature has not examined. The aim of this study was to: 1) Examine the prevalence and conditional probability of PTSD over a 16 year period by trauma type, differentiating by sex, and 2) Explore this relationship by worst trauma type.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>We examined the prevalence of PTSD by sex among those with any exposure to 26 traumatic events, and used logistic regressions to examine trauma type and PTSD. The conditional probability of having PTSD over the 16-year follow-up period (2002–2018) and in the past year was calculated using population attributable fractions (PAFs). Identical analyses were used to examine the conditional probability of PTSD related to a self-reported ‘worst event’.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Over the 16-year follow-up, we found that males showed higher conditional likelihood of developing PTSD from exposure to sexual trauma while females showed a higher conditional likelihood of developing PTSD from exposure to an accidentrelated trauma. For the probability of PTSD conditional on the worst event, accidentrelated or sexual trauma in females, and sexual and deployment-related trauma in males showed the highest PAF and strongest relationship.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This research supports differences in PTSD prevalence depending on the type of traumatic exposure. Importantly, different patterns of conditional probability of PTSD emerged by sex. These findings can provide important information for mental health providers within the military treating multiple traumas.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103038"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144298143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Altered resting-state amygdala-cerebellar functional connectivity is associated with intolerance of uncertainty in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A longitudinal study","authors":"Qihui Guo , Rongrong Zhu , Huixia Zhou , Dongmei Wang , Xiangyang Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103048","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103048","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Objectives</h3><div>Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) plays an important role in the pathology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The amygdala and anterior insula (AI) appear to be important neural correlates of IU. However, the relationship between altered resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) and IU in OCD patients has not been reported.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>This study recruited 39 patients with OCD and 45 healthy controls (HC). IU was measured using the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS). The seed-to-voxel method was used to construct rsFC maps. Between-group differences in rsFC and their correlations with IU were analyzed. Following an eight-week psychological intervention, OCD patients underwent a second assessment. The association between rsFC changes and IU changes was investigated.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>OCD patients exhibited significantly higher IUS scores. Significant alterations in rsFC were observed between the left amygdala and the left cerebellum posterior lobe (CPL), as well as between the left AI and the left cuneus in OCD patients. In the OCD group, only the left amygdala - left CPL rsFC significantly correlated with IUS scores. No significant correlations were found between rsFC and IUS scores in the HC group. Longitudinal analysis revealed that changes in the left amygdala - left CPL rsFC were significantly associated with changes in IUS scores.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>This study establishes amygdala-cerebellar rsFC as a specific neural signature of IU in patients with OCD, patterns absent in healthy controls. Moreover, the amygdala-cerebellar rsFC displayed longitudinal coupling with IU changes. These findings provide novel insights into the neural mechanisms of OCD pathology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103048"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144312692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jasmijn E. van Rossum , Semmy Op den Camp , Renske Uiterwijk , Kay Deckers , Vasiliki Orgeta , Bernice J.A. Gulpers , Sjacko Sobczak
{"title":"PTSD and cognition in older adults: A systematic literature review","authors":"Jasmijn E. van Rossum , Semmy Op den Camp , Renske Uiterwijk , Kay Deckers , Vasiliki Orgeta , Bernice J.A. Gulpers , Sjacko Sobczak","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103047","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103047","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disabling mental health disorder affecting psychosocial functioning and quality of life. This systematic review is the first to summarize existing global literature on the relationship between PTSD and specific domains of cognitive function in the general population of older adults. We searched PsycINFO, Medline and CINAHL up until November 1st 2024. Studies were included if they were longitudinal cohort or cross-sectional studies of adults aged 60 years and over with a clinical diagnosis of PTSD or subthreshold PTSD symptoms, reporting on any domain of cognitive functioning using a standardised measure. Eighteen good or satisfactory quality articles met criteria for this review, of which three were longitudinal cohort studies and fifteen were cross-sectional studies. PTSD was associated with significant accelerated general cognitive decline and possible accelerated decline in attention and memory over time. Older adults with PTSD additionally performed significantly worse on measures of global cognitive function and memory compared to those without PTSD. For executive function results were mixed; two studies showed significant negative associations, whereas four other studies showed no significant differences between individuals with and without PTSD. Proactive screening of individuals with PTSD for cognitive decline and an additional focus of PTSD treatment on cognitive functioning are needed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103047"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144280698","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sleep disturbances predict nine-year panic disorder chronicity: The sleep-panic nexus theory with machine learning insights","authors":"Nur Hani Zainal , Natalia Van Doren","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103052","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103052","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>Panic disorder (PD) is a chronic and impairing anxiety disorder. Individuals with more sleep disturbances might be predisposed to nine-year PD chronicity. However, linearity assumptions, small predictor sets, and analytic and design limitations have hindered optimal identification of which sleep disturbance variables are distal risk factors for PD chronicity. We thus used machine learning (ML) to predict nine-year PD chronicity using high-dimensional data.</div></div><div><h3>Method</h3><div>Community-dwelling adults (<em>N</em> = 1054) completed clinical interviews, self-reports, and seven-day sleep actigraphy at Wave 1 (W1) and the same clinical interview at Wave 2 (W2) nine years later. The baseline data comprised 43 actigraphy, self-reported sleep disturbances, clinical, and demographic variables. Seven ML models were examined. Gradient boosting machine (GBM) was the best-performing algorithm. PD chronicity was defined as the presence of a PD diagnosis at both W1 and W2.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>The GBM accurately predicted PD chronicity (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] =.764). Shapley additive explanation analysis showed that the top W1 predictors of PD chronicity were comorbid major depressive disorder, low healthcare utilization, sleep medication use, lengthier wake after sleep onset, and sleep-wake circadian disruptions based on actigraphy and self-reports. Lower household income and younger age were also top predictors. Additionally, the final multivariate model was well-calibrated.</div></div><div><h3>Conclusions</h3><div>As proposed in our <em>sleep-panic nexus theory</em>, actigraphy and subjective sleep disturbances have essential prognostic value in predicting long-term PD chronicity. Harnessing ML facilitates accurate prediction by identifying complex, nonlinear relations across high-dimensional datasets, possibly improving prevention and treatment tailoring.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103052"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144704649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Lieke C.J. Nijborg , Gerben J. Westerhof , Justina Pociūnaitė-Ott , Maarten J.J. Kunst , Jos de Keijser , Lonneke I.M. Lenferink
{"title":"Trajectories of grief-related psychopathology: A decade after the MH17 plane disaster","authors":"Lieke C.J. Nijborg , Gerben J. Westerhof , Justina Pociūnaitė-Ott , Maarten J.J. Kunst , Jos de Keijser , Lonneke I.M. Lenferink","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103036","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103036","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Violent losses increase the risk for prolonged grief disorder (PGD), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). Little is known about the course of grief-related psychopathology in the long term. Hence, we examined their latent trajectories, overlap, and predictors to enhance our understanding of differential long-term responses to violent loss. MH17-bereaved people (<em>N</em> = 299) completed annual self-report measures from one to nine years post-loss. Prolonged grief (PG), posttraumatic stress (PTS), and major depression (MD) symptom trajectories were identified using latent class growth modeling. Overlap in trajectory membership was examined using frequencies. Predictors of trajectory membership were examined using multinomial regression analyses. Four PG symptom trajectories emerged: low (41.0 %), moderate decreasing (34.2 %), high (13.5 %), and recovered (11.3 %). Four PTS symptom trajectories emerged: low (56.2 %), recovered (19.6 %), moderate increasing (17.6 %), and high (6.6 %). Four MD symptom trajectories emerged: low (55.7 %), moderate (19.6 %), moderate decreasing (15.1 %), and high (9.5 %). The findings indicate that if people report psychopathology, this often entails PGD by itself, and sometimes in combination with PTSD and MDD, yet rarely PTSD or MDD by itself. Around one in 20 people was assigned to all three high symptom trajectories. Different predictors were found across disorders. To conclude, most MH17-bereaved people reported low grief-related psychopathology, yet one in six reported high grief-related psychopathology levels (i.e., at least probable PGD, PTSD, or MDD) nearly a decade later. There is no indication of a delayed onset of grief-related psychopathology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103036"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144471064","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"FOMO’s apprehension of missing out and constant connection desire dimensions differentially correlate with problematic smartphone and social media use, but not with depression or generalized anxiety","authors":"Jon D. Elhai , Silvia Casale , Rachel A. Bond","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103037","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103037","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The fear of missing out (FOMO) involves an apprehension of missing out on rewarding experiences, and a desire to continually stay connected with people. However, this two-dimension conceptualization of FOMO has not been properly empirically examined. We examined this two-factor model using confirmatory factor analysis in 326 American college students, and 433 Italian participants recruited through social media. We discovered that in both samples, the two-factor model fit well; e.g., the US sample’s comparative fit index (CFI) = .990, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = .985; Italian sample’s CFI = .941, TLI = .917. The two-factor model fit significantly better than a one-factor model in both samples (ps<.001) (though magnitude of differences was small, with CFI differences ranging from .001–.007). In both samples, problematic social media use severity was more correlated (ps<.001) with FOMO’s constant connection desire factor (US sample r = .749; Italian sample r = .845) than apprehension of missing out factor (US sample r = .622; Italian sample r = .500). In the American sample, problematic smartphone use severity also correlated more (p < .001) with constant connection desire (r = .668) than apprehension of missing out (r = .587). However, in the American sample depression severity correlated equally (ps>.05) with FOMO’s constant connection desire (r = .466) and apprehension of missing out (r = .503) factors; generalized anxiety disorder symptoms also equally correlated (ps>.05) with FOMO’s constant connection desire (r = .470) and apprehension of missing out (r = .508). We discuss implications of our findings for measurement of FOMO, and FOMO’s relationship with problematic Internet use and negative affectivity.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103037"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144196295","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Savoring meditation for emotional disorders: Targeting positive emotion regulation deficits","authors":"Tomoko Kishimoto , Ximing Hao , Jianwei Qian","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103054","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103054","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Deficits in positive emotion regulation (PER) contribute to emotional disorders but are less studied than negative emotion regulation (NER). One maladaptive PER strategy, positive emotion contrast-seeking (PEC-seeking), involves sustaining negative affect to enhance later positive emotions, reinforcing anxiety and depression. This study developed and tested a savoring-based, transdiagnostic intervention to reduce PEC-seeking and alleviate emotional disorder symptoms. A single-blind RCT with 59 Chinese college students with elevated depression and anxiety (majority meeting depression criteria) compared a two-week group savoring meditation intervention to waitlist control. Changes in depression, anxiety, savoring beliefs, and PEC-seeking were assessed at Baseline (T0), MidTest (T1), PostTest (T2), and one-month Follow-up (T3). The experimental group also reported positive and negative affect before and after each group session and individual practice. Savoring meditation significantly reduced depression (T1, <em>d</em> = −1.11, <em>p</em> = .005; T2, <em>d</em> = −1.60, <em>p</em> < .001) with effects maintained at follow-up (T3, <em>p</em> < .001). Negative affect also declined significantly (Session 5, <em>p</em> < .001), though changes in positive affect were not statistically significant. The intervention increased savoring beliefs (T1, <em>d</em> = 1.42, T2, <em>d</em> = 1.41, <em>ps</em> =.003) and reduced PEC-seeking (T1, <em>d</em> = −0.92, <em>p</em> = .027), which in turn mediated reductions in depression. Although anxiety symptoms declined within the experimental group over time, between-group differences did not reach statistical significance. Nonetheless, the effect size was larger for the experimental group (T2, <em>d</em> = 0.34) than for the waitlist group (<em>d</em> = 0.01), suggesting a potential anxiolytic effect of the intervention. These findings suggest that targeting maladaptive PER strategies, especially PEC-seeking, via savoring meditation may effectively reduce emotional disorder symptoms. This study highlights PER’s role in transdiagnostic interventions and provides novel insights into PER-focused therapies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103054"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144702323","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Understanding climate anxiety and potential impacts on pro-environment behaviours","authors":"Zac Coates, Scott Brown, Michelle Kelly","doi":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103049","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.janxdis.2025.103049","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Previous studies have identified harmful social, physical, and mental impacts due to climate change. Anxiety due to climate change or “climate anxiety” may be an adaptive or reasonable response to a real threat; however, it may also be associated with considerable functional impairment of associated behaviours. In this study, we examined the relationship between climate anxiety and pro-environment behaviours, via an online discrete choice experiment, with 374 participants recruited from prolific academic and undergraduate university recruitment program. This experiment included our discrete choice measure of pro-environment behaviours and self-report survey items examining climate anxiety, general anxiety, death anxiety, and locus of control. We found that a moderate level of climate anxiety may be optimal for making pro-environmental choices, with this group having significantly more eco-friendly choices than participants in the low or high climate anxiety groups. We also examined the relationships between climate anxiety and three other psychological concepts, locus of control, general anxiety, and death anxiety, and found that these 3 factors were positively related to climate anxiety. These findings may indicate that some additional negative mental health outcomes are associated with high levels of climate anxiety. This study provides evidence for the use of discrete choice experiments when examining pro-environment behaviours, which may allow future studies to further examine various other trade-offs or factors such as the cost that participants are willing to “pay” for an eco-friendly option.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":48390,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Anxiety Disorders","volume":"114 ","pages":"Article 103049"},"PeriodicalIF":4.8,"publicationDate":"2025-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144321873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}