SELECTIVE PROCESSING OF NEGATIVE INFORMATION - EFFECTS OF CLINICAL ANXIETY, CONCURRENT DEPRESSION, AND AWARENESS

Anxious patients(n = 20) and normal controls (n = 20) carried out a mo dified Stroop color-naming task with anxiety- and depression-related w ords in supraliminal and subliminal exposure conditions. Within the an xious group, patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) without concurrent depression (n = 11) showed more color-naming interference f or anxiety words than neutral words in comparison with patients with a combined diagnosis of GAD and depression (n = 9). Compared with contr ols, the GAD subgroup without concurrent depression showed slower colo r naming for negative than neutral words, in both supraliminal and sub liminal conditions, replicating K. Mogg, B. P. Bradley, R. Williams, a nd A. Mathews's (1993) results. These findings provide further evidenc e of an anxiety-related bias for negative information in preconscious processes and highlight the importance of assessing concurrent depress ion.