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

This study investigated explicit (cued recall) and implicit memory (word completion) memory bias for catastrophic associations among individuals with panic disorder (n = 24), clinician controls (n = 24), and normal controls (n = 24). Compared to both control groups, the panic disorder group showed biased explicit and implicit memory for catastrophic associations to bodily sensation words (eg., palpitation-coronary) compared to positive (e.g., smiles-elation) and neutral (eg., groceries-coupons) word pairs of equal relatedness. These results support cognitive formulations of panic disorder which suggest that individuals with panic disorder have biased memory for catastrophic associations and that these biases can occur in both conscious (explicit) and nonconscious (implicit) memory processes.