http://www.ehps2015.org/files/EHPS2015_Conference_Abstracts_27082015.pdf
29th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society
29th Conference of the European Health Psychology Society
Poster Presentation Abstracts
Attentional bias for health-threat in CFS/ME following depressed mood
I. Alexeeva1
M. Martin 2
1 University of Oxford, United Kingdom
2 University of Oxfprd, United Kingdom
Background
A cognitive account of the persistence of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis
(CFS/ME) proposes amplified attention towards somatic information may distort symptom perception
and maintain symptoms.
Negative mood may further affect cognitive processing by dwelling on healththreat further amplifying attention to symptoms.
The study aims to measure an attentional bias towards health-threat in CFS/ME following a depressed or neutral mood induction.
Methods
16 CFS/ME and 34 healthy and 29 asthma participants completed an attentional task that measured
allocation and shifting of attention in response to health-threat or neutral information.
Findings
CFS group similar to healthy controls, but unlike asthma, is showing an attentional bias towards
healththreat F (2, 61) = 4.06, p = .022, ηp2 = .118.
Against the prediction, the negative mood appears to decrease the magnitude of the attentional bias in CFS participants.
Discussion
Attentional bias manifests under the higher mental load for CFS/ME and healthy individuals, but not
for asthma.
Depressed mood decreases the bias, against the expectation that it would amplify the focus on somatic symptoms.