The Thought Control Questionnaire - psychometric properties in a clinical sample, and relationships with PTSD and depression

Background. Recent developments in research suggest that particular attempt s to control thoughts may contribute to the problem of intrusion. An instru ment capable of identifying strategies for dealing with unwanted intrusions in clinical populations may be used for differentiating between thought co ntrol strategies that may or may not be helpful. Methods. The Thought Control Questionnaire (TCQ) (Wells & Davies, 1994) dev eloped and validated on a normal sample, was administered to a clinical sam ple in order to investigate the consistency of the original factor structur e and its psychometric properties. The sensitivity of the scale to change a ssociated with recovery was also examined. Relationships between individual differences in thought control strategies and psychiatric symptoms in pati ents with DSM-IV major depression, and PTSD with or without major depressio n were investigated. Results. The Scree Test suggested a six-factor solution which was rotated. This solution split the original distraction subscale into separate behavio ural and cognitive distraction, otherwise the subscales were almost identic al to those obtained in non-clinical subjects. As this split has been shown to be unreliable, further analyses in this study were based on the five-fa ctor version of the TCQ obtained by Wells & Davies (1994). Predictors of re covery and of symptoms in PTSD and depression were explored. Conclusions. Correlations between the TCQ subscales and other measures sugg est that particular thought control strategies may be associated with the s ymptoms of PTSD and depression. The TCQ scales appear to be sensitive to ch anges associated with recovery. Significant differences emerged in thought control strategies between depressed and PTSD patients. Hierarchical regres sion analysis showed distraction, punishment and reappraisal control strate gies predicted depression scores in depressed patients while use of distrac tion predicted intrusions in PTSD.