RELATION BETWEEN PARAMETERS OF IMPLICIT A ND EXPLICIT COGNITION AND PSYCHOSOMATIC SELF-REPORT MEASURES

Most recent clinical research focuses on perceptual and memory process es in emotional disorders: While patients with anxiety disorders are c haracterised by a high portion of implicit, unconscious perception, pa tients with depressive disorders exhibit increased explicit and consci ous information processing. Aim of this study is to analyse informatio n processing of persons with a tendency towards somatoform disorders. Based on the Process Dissociation Procedure, an experimental paradigm is introduced, which allows to separate and quantify contributions of explicit and implicit processes to auditorily presented threatening st imuli. This paradigm comprises an indirect measure of memory (lexical decision task), in which threatening (BW) and neutral (NW) words as we ll as their corresponding nonwords are presented masked with white noi se. Parameters can clearly differentiate between persons showing somat izing symptoms (SOMS > 3; n = 18) and those not showing these symptoms (SOMS < 3; n = 21): While only chance differences between both groups according to explicit perception of BW and NW and implicit perception of NW were found, symptom carriers had significantly higher portions of implicit perception to BW. Furthermore, no significant correlations were found between these cognitive measures and clinical self-report measures (Whiteleyindex, Screening for Anxiety and Depression, etc.). Thus, persons with a tendency towards somatoform disorders are compara ble with anxious patients. Both show an implicit, selective attentiona l bias towards threatening stimuli. Suggestions for assessment and ind ications for psychotherapy are discussed.