Development of the Movement Disorders Interpretation Bias Scale and psychometric evaluation in adults with...

Anxiety is widespread but undertreated in Huntington's disease (HD). Targeting negative interpretations of ambiguity may reduce anxiety in HD, but no valid measure of negative interpretation biases in HD exists. We developed the Movement Disorders Interpretation Bias Scale (MDIB) to measure negative interpretation biases in movement disorders (e.g., HD, Parkinson's disease [PD]) and evaluated its validity in adults with HD (preregistration: https://osf.io/26a3h).

We developed the MDIB based on qualitative interviews and expert review, then invited adults with HD (N = 65) to participate in an online survey study to evaluate its structural and external validity. Data were collected between June 2021 and January 2023.

Exploratory factor analyses support one factor representing external threats (i.e., social evaluation of movement disorder symptoms) and another factor representing internal threats (i.e., catastrophizing about such symptoms). Scores for both factors showed acceptable internal and test-retest reliabilities, and expected convergent and discriminant validity relations. The external bias score showed expected concurrent, incremental concurrent, and predictive validity relations, with mixed evidence for incremental predictive validity. Unexpectedly, the internal bias score's concurrent and predictive validity relations were nonsignificant.

Results support the MDIB as a measure of negative interpretation biases in HD, with some limitations. Further, associations between the MDIB external bias score and anxiety-related outcomes suggest that the MDIB can be used as a measure of target engagement in future trials evaluating cognitive behavioral treatments for anxiety. These results represent a critical step toward understanding and alleviating the significant burden of anxiety in HD.