[Exploration of memory disorders in anxiety states]

Abstract

According to cognitive model of anxiety, memory process in anxious patients is usually tested by comparing the incidental recall of positive and negative, threatening and non threatening, self and other-referenced words. Contrary to expectation, the results indicate relatively poorer memory for threatening material in anxious patients and no bias in favour of the recall of self referent negative words. At the opposite this memory bias can be evidenced in patients with panic disorder. The bias for anxiety words is better evidenced in the subgroups with the higher arousal level or when there is a mood induction by reading first an anxiogenic text. Consistent with prediction a perceptive pre-attentional bias can be shown for the great majority of the subjects studied in recent researches.