Attentional bias towards health-threat information in chronic fatigue syndrome

Ruihua Hou, Rona Moss-Morris*, Brendan P. Bradley, Robert Peveler, Karin Mogg

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

30 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective: To investigate whether individuals with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) show an attentional bias towards health-threat information. Methods: Attentional bias (AB) was assessed in individuals with CFS and healthy controls using a visual probe task which presented health-threat and neutral words and pictures for 500 ms. Self-report questionnaires were used to assess CFS symptoms, depression, anxiety, and social desirability. Results: Compared to a healthy control group, the CFS group showed an enhanced AB towards heath-threat stimuli relative to neutral stimuli. The AB was not influenced by the type of stimulus (pictures vs. words). Conclusion: The finding of an AB towards health-threat information in individuals with CFS is supportive of models of CFS which underlie cognitive behavior therapy. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)47-50
Number of pages4
JournalJournal of Psychosomatic Research
Volume65
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 2008

Keywords

  • attentional bias
  • chronic fatigue syndrome
  • health-threat stimuli
  • visual probe task
  • ANXIETY
  • DEPRESSION
  • TRIAL
  • SCALE

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