Fear of cognitive dyscontrol in relation to depression symptoms: comparisons between original and alternative measures of anxiety sensitivity

Previous research has found that a facet of anxiety sensitivity (AS), refer red to as fear of cognitive dyscontrol or fear of mental incapacitation, is associated with severity of depressed mood. Other research has extended th e "fear of fear" concept to include fear of losing control over emotion in general (including depression). Because anxiety and depression share the co mmon feature of general distress (Clark & Watson, 1991. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 19-30), the present study took a conservative approach and statistically controlled for the effect of trait anxiety and negative affe ctivity before contributions of AS to depression were examined. In a large college student sample (N = 348), facets of the original and alternative me asures of AS were evaluated in attempts to predict severity of depression s ymptoms. Fear of cognitive dyscontrol facets from both measures of AS were significant predictors in the regression analyses. A new set of items refle ctive of control over emotions was also significant and both cognitive and emotional control added to the prediction of depression symptoms in a compl ementary fashion. Implications of these findings for identifying a proposed "depression sensitivity" are discussed. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Sci ence Ltd. Al! rights reserved.