The characteristics of attentional bias in adolescents with anxiety disorder / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the characteristics of attentional bias in adolescents with anxiety disorder.Methods:Totally 40 adolescents with anxiety disorder who met the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria were recruited as the case group, 40 normal adolescents matched with the case group in terms of gender, age and education level were served as the control group.Symptom was assessed by the screen for child anxiety related emotional disorders (SCARED), and attention bias was assessed by attention bias test on both groups.All data were analyzed using SPSS 21.0.Results:(1) In the test of attentional bias, the negative reaction of the case group was lower than the neutral response((647.14±94.44)ms, (661.08±112.07)ms), and the attention bias value of the case group was higher than the control group((13.93±33.27)ms, (-0.13±18.49)ms), the differences were statistically significant (both P<0.05). (2) In the total score and each factor score of SCARED, total score of SCARED was negatively correlated with the negative accuracy rate ( r=-0.38), and the separation anxiety score was negatively correlated with the negative accuracy rate ( r=-0.52), social terrorism scores were negatively correlated with negative accuracy ( r=-0.45) and neutral accuracy ( r=-0.43) (all P<0.05). The correlation between somatization, generalized anxiety and school terror with attention bias test were not significant( P>0.05). Conclusion:Adolescents with anxiety disorder are more concerned with negative stimuli, and it is difficult to shift attention from negative stimuli to others.The avoidance to neutral stimuli may be a risk factor for the severity of symptoms in adolescents with anxiety disorders.