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Thought suppression and psychopathology.

C Purdon¹

¹Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, Ont., Canada. clpurdon@watarts.uwaterloo.ca

Behaviour Research and Therapy

|September 29, 1999

Summary

Attempting to suppress unwanted thoughts, a key factor in emotional disorders, can paradoxically increase their frequency. This review explores thought suppression

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Clinical Psychology
Cognitive Psychology

Background:

Wegner's research on thought suppression influences understanding of emotional disorders.
Persistent, repetitive, unwanted thoughts characterize many emotional disorders.

Purpose of the Study:

Review the impact of thought suppression on emotional disorders.
Examine studies on suppressing thoughts analogous to disorder-specific intrusive thoughts.
Discuss implications for existing disorder models and future research.

Main Methods:

Literature review of studies on thought suppression and emotional disorders.
Analysis of research investigating the effects of suppressing thoughts similar to those in clinical conditions.

Main Results:

Thought suppression is implicated as an etiological and/or maintaining factor in depression, anxiety disorders, phobias, PTSD, and OCD.
Recent studies confirm that suppressing thoughts analogous to problematic ones can be counterproductive.

Conclusions:

Thought suppression plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of various emotional disorders.
Further research is needed to fully understand and address the impact of thought suppression in clinical populations.

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