Attention to bodily sensations: a test of the cognitive-attentional model of panic

This paper describes a study designed to test the cognitive-attentional model of panic. This model suggests that attention to internal sensations is likely to increase misinterpretation of them as representing a serious threat to health, which in turn might increase anxiety. In the present study, instructions for internal attentional focus were predicted to increase symptom reporting, anxiety, and catastrophic symptom attributions. Two groups, patients diagnosed with panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA) and normal controls, watched a stressful film; half of each group was asked to attend to their internal sensations while watching, and the other half to focus on the film. In the normal controls, the manipulation was effective in modifying attentional focus, and the self-focused attention group became more anxious, reported more symptoms, and made more negative symptom attributions. However, in the PDA group, attentional focus was high in both conditions, and perhaps for this reason the intervention had no effect on mood, symptoms, catastrophic cognitions, or symptom attribution.