Elsevier

Psychiatry Research

Volume 169, Issue 3, 30 October 2009, Pages 240-243
Psychiatry Research

Meta-cognitive profiles in anxiety disorders

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2008.06.029Get rights and content

Abstract

This study had two distinct objectives. First, to examine the relationships between meta-cognitions and anxiety disorders. Second, to identify specific meta-cognitions as unique predictors of generalized anxiety (GAD), depression (DD) and obsessive–compulsive (OCD) disorders. A total of 180 cases were analyzed using the Meta-cognitions Questionnaire (MCQ), Anxious Thoughts Inventory (AnTI), and the Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ). The results suggest that all the five types of negative metacognitive beliefs measured by the MCQ are significantly correlated with one another and with AnTI and TCQ scores except for cognitive self-consciousness, which failed to correlate with TCQ scores. Multivariate analysis revealed that the clinical cases differed from normal subjects in their beliefs about uncontrollability and danger, beliefs about cognitive competence, and general negative beliefs. Only OCD patients differed from both normal subjects and GAD patients in their cognitive self-consciousness. Health worry was elevated in GAD patients, while meta-worry was elevated in OCD patients. Furthermore, depressives tended to use worry while OCD patients tended to use distraction as meta-cognitive strategies to control intrusive and distressing thoughts. Discriminant analysis was performed with GAD, DD and OCD as dependent variables and the MCQ, AnTI and TCQ subscales as predictor variables. Overall the discriminant functions successfully predicted outcome for over 70% of cases. Findings provide support for the Self-Regulatory Executive Function model.

Section snippets

Meta-cognitive profiles in anxiety disorders

Meta-cognition is a multi-faceted concept comprising knowledge, processes and strategies that appraise, monitor or control cognition. In the area of adult psychopathology, the Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model proposed by Wells and Mathews (Wells, 2000; Wells and Matthews, 1994, Wells and Matthews, 1996) offers a detailed analysis of how meta-cognitions would play a determining role in the maintenance and development of psychological disorders. Meta-cognitions have been

Meta-cognitions Questionnaire (MCQ, Cartwright-Hatton and Wells, 1997)

The MCQ is a questionnaire with 65 items that have to be answered using a scale of 1 (“I do not agree”) to 4 (“I totally agree”). Factorial analysis carried out by the authors showed the presence of five empirically differentiated and relatively stable factors (Cartwright-Hatton and Wells, 1997). Four of them represent meta-cognitive content: positive beliefs about worry, negative beliefs about the uncontrollability of thoughts and their danger, loss of cognitive confidence, and superstition

3.1 Correlational analyses

Pearson inter-correlations between the main scales are displayed in Table 1. As can be seen, meta-cognitive beliefs are significantly correlated with anxious thoughts and thought-control strategies.

Hypothesis testing

Multivariate analyses were run to test for the hypothesized group differences in the various dimensions of meta-cognition, anxious thoughts and thought control. There was a significant effect of diagnostic group on the combined dependent variable (F(45, 672) = 15.72, P < 0.0005; Pillai's trace = 1.54;

Discussion

This study aimed to investigate relationships between meta-cognitive beliefs, anxious thoughts, and thought-control strategies in generalized anxiety, depression and obsessive–compulsive disorders. The differences between the diagnostic groups in terms of the factors underlying these variables were also explored, and based on the observed significant differences, an attempt was made to arrive at the major dimensions along which these groups can be described.

Meta-cognitive beliefs, anxious

Acknowledgement

The research reported was supported by a research grant from the University of Mohaghegh Ardabili.

References (16)

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