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Worry and Positive Episodes in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study

Worry is a central feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Although worry is related to anxiety and maintained by beliefs that worry is uncontrollable, there is scarce research on how individuals with GAD react to worry episodes in their daily life and how their positive experiences might imp...

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Autores principales: Vîslă, Andreea, Zinbarg, Richard, Hilpert, Peter, Allemand, Mathias, Flückiger, Christoph
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8579489/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34777100
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.722881
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author Vîslă, Andreea
Zinbarg, Richard
Hilpert, Peter
Allemand, Mathias
Flückiger, Christoph
author_facet Vîslă, Andreea
Zinbarg, Richard
Hilpert, Peter
Allemand, Mathias
Flückiger, Christoph
author_sort Vîslă, Andreea
collection PubMed
description Worry is a central feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Although worry is related to anxiety and maintained by beliefs that worry is uncontrollable, there is scarce research on how individuals with GAD react to worry episodes in their daily life and how their positive experiences might impact reactions to worry episodes. The current study examined the level and variability of anxiety and controllability during high worry periods and positive experiences in GAD. Moreover, it investigated the influence of worry and positive experiences on later anxiety and perceived controllability within-persons. Finally, it examined change in anxiety level from previous to current episodes depending on previous episodes type. In the current study, 49 individuals with GAD (514 observations) registered their worry and positive episodes (i.e., episodes in which they had positive experiences) and reported on several variables during these episodes (i.e., anxiety and controllability of episodes and episode duration) using smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment for 7days. Results show anxiety and controllability differed by episode type (higher anxiety, lower controllability in worry episodes, and the opposite in positive episodes), and notable within-person variability in anxiety and controllability in both episode types. The time-lagged multilevel models showed episode type did not predict later anxiety during either episode type, although previous anxiety predicted current anxiety in worry episodes (but not positive episodes). Moreover, worry episodes did predict later controllability in worry episodes (but not positive episodes) and previous controllability predicted current controllability in both episode types. Furthermore, we obtained the increase in anxiety from t(0−1) to t(0) in a current worry episode to be significantly smaller when preceded by a worry (vs. positive) episode. Likewise, the reduction in anxiety from t(0−1) to t(0) in a current positive episode was significantly larger when preceded by a worry (vs. positive) episode. The novel findings in the current study that perceptions of controllability and anxiety vary within individuals with GAD, that greater controllability is experienced in positive episodes than worry episodes, and that worry may confer a sense of controllability at a later time could be seen as important contributions to the GAD literature.
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spelling pubmed-85794892021-11-11 Worry and Positive Episodes in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study Vîslă, Andreea Zinbarg, Richard Hilpert, Peter Allemand, Mathias Flückiger, Christoph Front Psychol Psychology Worry is a central feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Although worry is related to anxiety and maintained by beliefs that worry is uncontrollable, there is scarce research on how individuals with GAD react to worry episodes in their daily life and how their positive experiences might impact reactions to worry episodes. The current study examined the level and variability of anxiety and controllability during high worry periods and positive experiences in GAD. Moreover, it investigated the influence of worry and positive experiences on later anxiety and perceived controllability within-persons. Finally, it examined change in anxiety level from previous to current episodes depending on previous episodes type. In the current study, 49 individuals with GAD (514 observations) registered their worry and positive episodes (i.e., episodes in which they had positive experiences) and reported on several variables during these episodes (i.e., anxiety and controllability of episodes and episode duration) using smartphone-based ecological momentary assessment for 7days. Results show anxiety and controllability differed by episode type (higher anxiety, lower controllability in worry episodes, and the opposite in positive episodes), and notable within-person variability in anxiety and controllability in both episode types. The time-lagged multilevel models showed episode type did not predict later anxiety during either episode type, although previous anxiety predicted current anxiety in worry episodes (but not positive episodes). Moreover, worry episodes did predict later controllability in worry episodes (but not positive episodes) and previous controllability predicted current controllability in both episode types. Furthermore, we obtained the increase in anxiety from t(0−1) to t(0) in a current worry episode to be significantly smaller when preceded by a worry (vs. positive) episode. Likewise, the reduction in anxiety from t(0−1) to t(0) in a current positive episode was significantly larger when preceded by a worry (vs. positive) episode. The novel findings in the current study that perceptions of controllability and anxiety vary within individuals with GAD, that greater controllability is experienced in positive episodes than worry episodes, and that worry may confer a sense of controllability at a later time could be seen as important contributions to the GAD literature. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-10-05 /pmc/articles/PMC8579489/ /pubmed/34777100 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.722881 Text en Copyright © 2021 Vîslă, Zinbarg, Hilpert, Allemand and Flückiger. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Vîslă, Andreea
Zinbarg, Richard
Hilpert, Peter
Allemand, Mathias
Flückiger, Christoph
Worry and Positive Episodes in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
title Worry and Positive Episodes in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
title_full Worry and Positive Episodes in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
title_fullStr Worry and Positive Episodes in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
title_full_unstemmed Worry and Positive Episodes in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
title_short Worry and Positive Episodes in the Daily Lives of Individuals With Generalized Anxiety Disorder: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study
title_sort worry and positive episodes in the daily lives of individuals with generalized anxiety disorder: an ecological momentary assessment study
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8579489/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34777100
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.722881
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