Relationship of attentional bias to anxiety sensitivity and panic

Panic disorder and panic attacks have been associated with selective attention to threatening information, a factor that may contribute to the maintenance of panic. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), or fear of anxiety-related symptoms, has been described as a cognitive risk factor for panic. It is of interest to understand the relationship between these cognitive correlates of panic, but the literature on the topic has been equivocal. In this study, 65 individuals completed measures of AS, anxiety symptoms and panic as well as the emotional Stroop task, a commonly used measure of attentional bias. We found that panic history and anxiety symptoms were associated with attentional bias for information related to physical and social threat. AS was not significantly associated with performance on the Stroop, suggesting that previous positive findings may have been a reflection of the confounding effect of panic.