IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT MEMORY FOR CATASTROPHIC ASSOCIATIONS TO BODILY SENSATION WORDS IN PANIC DISORDER

This study investigated explicit (cued recall) and implicit memory (wo rd completion) memory bias for catastrophic associations among individ uals with panic disorder (n = 24), clinician controls (n = 24), and no rmal controls (n = 24). Compared to both control groups, the panic dis order group showed biased explicit and implicit memory for catastrophi c associations to bodily sensation words (eg., palpitation-coronary) c ompared to positive (e.g., smiles-elation) and neutral (eg., groceries -coupons) word pairs of equal relatedness. These results support cogni tive formulations of panic disorder which suggest that individuals wit h panic disorder have biased memory for catastrophic associations and that these biases can occur in both conscious (explicit) and nonconsci ous (implicit) memory processes.