Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract After the COVID-19 worldwide spread, evidence suggested a vast diffusion of negative consequences on people's mental health. Together with depression and sleep difficulties, anxiety symptoms seem to be the most diffused clinical outcome. The current contribution aimed to examine attent...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales:	Loreta Cannito, Adolfo Di Crosta, Rocco Palumbo, Irene Ceccato, Stefano Anzani, Pasquale La Malva, Riccardo Palumbo, Alberto Di Domenico
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2020
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/e1908a464a694cea934d0bde141cbf35
Etiquetas:	Agregar Etiqueta Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!

id	oai:doaj.org-article:e1908a464a694cea934d0bde141cbf35
record_format	dspace
spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:e1908a464a694cea934d0bde141cbf352021-12-02T18:37:06ZHealth anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic10.1038/s41598-020-73599-82045-2322https://doaj.org/article/e1908a464a694cea934d0bde141cbf352020-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73599-8https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract After the COVID-19 worldwide spread, evidence suggested a vast diffusion of negative consequences on people's mental health. Together with depression and sleep difficulties, anxiety symptoms seem to be the most diffused clinical outcome. The current contribution aimed to examine attentional bias for virus-related stimuli in people varying in their degree of health anxiety (HA). Consistent with previous literature, it was hypothesized that higher HA would predict attentional bias, tested using a visual dot-probe task, to virus-related stimuli. Participants were 132 Italian individuals that participated in the study during the lockdown phase in Italy. Results indicated that the HA level predicts attentional bias toward virus-related objects. This relationship is double mediated by the belief of contagion and by the consequences of contagion as assessed through a recent questionnaire developed to measure the fear for COVID-19. These findings are discussed in the context of cognitive-behavioral conceptualizations of anxiety suggesting a risk for a loop effect. Future research directions are outlined.Loreta CannitoAdolfo Di CrostaRocco PalumboIrene CeccatoStefano AnzaniPasquale La MalvaRiccardo PalumboAlberto Di DomenicoNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 10, Iss 1, Pp 1-8 (2020)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Loreta Cannito Adolfo Di Crosta Rocco Palumbo Irene Ceccato Stefano Anzani Pasquale La Malva Riccardo Palumbo Alberto Di Domenico Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic
description	Abstract After the COVID-19 worldwide spread, evidence suggested a vast diffusion of negative consequences on people's mental health. Together with depression and sleep difficulties, anxiety symptoms seem to be the most diffused clinical outcome. The current contribution aimed to examine attentional bias for virus-related stimuli in people varying in their degree of health anxiety (HA). Consistent with previous literature, it was hypothesized that higher HA would predict attentional bias, tested using a visual dot-probe task, to virus-related stimuli. Participants were 132 Italian individuals that participated in the study during the lockdown phase in Italy. Results indicated that the HA level predicts attentional bias toward virus-related objects. This relationship is double mediated by the belief of contagion and by the consequences of contagion as assessed through a recent questionnaire developed to measure the fear for COVID-19. These findings are discussed in the context of cognitive-behavioral conceptualizations of anxiety suggesting a risk for a loop effect. Future research directions are outlined.
format	article
author	Loreta Cannito Adolfo Di Crosta Rocco Palumbo Irene Ceccato Stefano Anzani Pasquale La Malva Riccardo Palumbo Alberto Di Domenico
author_facet	Loreta Cannito Adolfo Di Crosta Rocco Palumbo Irene Ceccato Stefano Anzani Pasquale La Malva Riccardo Palumbo Alberto Di Domenico
author_sort	Loreta Cannito
title	Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_short	Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full	Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_fullStr	Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_full_unstemmed	Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic
title_sort	health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the covid-19 pandemic
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2020
url	https://doaj.org/article/e1908a464a694cea934d0bde141cbf35
work_keys_str_mv	AT loretacannito healthanxietyandattentionalbiastowardvirusrelatedstimuliduringthecovid19pandemic AT adolfodicrosta healthanxietyandattentionalbiastowardvirusrelatedstimuliduringthecovid19pandemic AT roccopalumbo healthanxietyandattentionalbiastowardvirusrelatedstimuliduringthecovid19pandemic AT irenececcato healthanxietyandattentionalbiastowardvirusrelatedstimuliduringthecovid19pandemic AT stefanoanzani healthanxietyandattentionalbiastowardvirusrelatedstimuliduringthecovid19pandemic AT pasqualelamalva healthanxietyandattentionalbiastowardvirusrelatedstimuliduringthecovid19pandemic AT riccardopalumbo healthanxietyandattentionalbiastowardvirusrelatedstimuliduringthecovid19pandemic AT albertodidomenico healthanxietyandattentionalbiastowardvirusrelatedstimuliduringthecovid19pandemic
_version_	1718377832769388544

Health anxiety and attentional bias toward virus-related stimuli during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ejemplares similares