Lecture 9: Intrusive thinking Flashcards
“the most common mode for recollecting past events in everyday life” =
involuntary memories
Proust’s madeleine=
transports him back to his childhood: a trivial cue induces strong emotional experiences
…% of new parents have intrusive thoughts about their kids: the baby suffocating, having an accident, being harmed.
90%
intrusive thought definitie
any distinct, identifiable cognitive event that is unwanted, unintended and recurrent. It interrupts the flow of thought, interferes in task performance, is associated with negative affect, and is difficult to control.
deze definitie zegt: “conscious, involuntary and unwanted thought”
maar dit is een betere definitie: “interruptive, salient, experienced mental events”
typical content of intrusive thoughts
- past and future emotional events
- unsolved problems/tasks
- uncertain events
- frequent stimuli (songs etc)
images=
Representations and the accompanying experience of sensory information without a direct external stimulus
- Seeing in the mind’s eye, hearing with our mind’s ear
- “here and now” quality
- strong link to emotions
everyday intrusive thinking - triggers
Seem to come out of nowhere, but usually
triggered by associated cues:
- External cues: sight, sounds, smells
- Internal cues: mood/ physiology
Probability increases with diminished cognitive control (e.g., sleep loss)
everyday intrusive thinking - need to control
- A spontaneous thought/ memory that causes a lot of distress is usually intrusive.
- However, often it’s not so much the content (which can also be neutral or pleasant) but the moment at which the thought comes to mind that makes it intrusive.
- Many situations require you to control your thoughts
wat is kenmerkend voor PTSD en wat voor OCD?
ptsd = memories
ocd = thoughts
hoe is het schema van PTSD en OCD (soort venndiagram)
links:
- involuntary (spontaneous)
- intrusive memory (interruptive & salient and/or distressing)
- clinical: PTSD (impairing)
rechts:
- involuntary thought (spontaneous)
- intrusive thought (interruptive & salient and/or distressing)
- clinical: OCD (impairing)
most prototypical forms of intrusions
- Posttraumatic stress disorder (Intrusive memories, flashbacks)
- Obsessive compulsive disorder (obsessions, compulsions)
ptsd DSM5
- Intrusion symptoms (one or more):
- Recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive distressing memories of the trauma
- Recurrent, distressing dreams related to the event(s)
- Dissociative reactions (e.g., flashbacks) in which the individual feels or acts as if the trauma(s) were recurring
- Intense or prolonged distress or physiological reactivity in response to reminders of the trauma(s)
- Avoidance, negative alterations in mood and cognition, arousal and reactivity
- Symptoms start or worsened after trauma, present >1 month
wat is een key woord in ptsd
re-experiencing
wat liet de Pécrot train crash zien
dat 86% van de witnesses intrusive memories meemaakten na 3 weken
In a study of motor vehicle accident patients, 76% had intrusive memories in the first few weeks, 25% at 3 months, and 24% at 1 year.
Does initial presence/ frequency predict later PTSD?
no, the initial presence does not fully predict the development of ptsd. it is a sensitive marker, but not specific
wanneer is iets intrusive
als je echt actief probeert om ergens anders over na denken
hoe gaat de controle van intrusive thoughts in healthy individuals
In healthy individuals, when intrusive thoughts occur, they are usually perceived as unwanted, at least at that moment. As a result, people often try to exclude them from awareness in an effort to regain control over thoughts and emotions. When successful, such efforts enable a person to put unwelcome thoughts out of mind, thus diminishing their accessibility in memory and reducing their tendency to return.
several contexts in everyday life in which people are motivated to forget thoughts for a functional reason:
- concentration during tasks
- executing high-performance cognitive and motor skills
- regulating pain
- regulating affect
- persisting in the face of failure
- protecting self-image
- justifying inappropriate behaviour
- maintaining attitudes and beliefs
- forgiving others and maintaining attachment
suddenly realizing that while our
eyes have been moving across the page, our minds have been temporarily
sidetracked by thoughts unrelated to the text=
mind wandering
sensitivity vs specificity
Sensitivity refers to a test’s ability to designate an individual with disease as positive. A highly sensitive test means that there are few false negative results, and thus fewer cases of disease are missed. The specificity of a test is its ability to designate an individual who does not have a disease as negative.
intrusive memories bestaan uit…
- sounds
- visual images
- thoughts
waar zorgen intrusive memories of trauma voor
- involve sensory experiences, ook in non-PTSD mensen -> dit is heel normaal (daarom ook kritiek op acute stress disorder)
- evoke distress when avoided
- lead to avoidance
- negative alterations in cognition and mood
- hyperarousal
Cognitive models of PTSD place […] at the hub of symptomatology, potentially […]
intrusive memories of trauma
acting as a driver of the other three symptom clusters (avoidance, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, and hyperarousal)