Repetitive Negative Thinking as a Transdiagnostic Process
This paper argues that repetitive negative thinking should be treated as a process that runs across disorders rather than as a symptom belonging to any one of them. The observation behind it is that worry in anxiety, rumination in depression and post-event processing in social anxiety are described separately in the literature while looking very similar in operation: sustained, repetitive, hard to stop, focused on something negative. If they are one process, the consequences are practical. It explains why these conditions occur together so often, it suggests the process itself as a treatment target rather than the disorder-specific content, and it makes the same measure useful across diagnoses. Related work outside psychiatry has found physiological effects for this kind of thinking, including raised heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol, which is part of why it is treated as a mechanism rather than a complaint. Written without an abstract, from the title and public accounts of the concept.
This paper argues that repetitive negative thinking should be treated as a process that runs across disorders rather than as a symptom belonging to any one of them. The observation behind it is that worry in anxiety, rumination in depression and post-event processing in social anxiety are described separately in the literature while looking very similar in operation: sustained, repetitive, hard to stop, focused on something negative. If they are one process, the consequences are practical. It explains why these conditions occur together so often, it suggests the process itself as a treatment target rather than the disorder-specific content, and it makes the same measure useful across diagnoses. Related work outside psychiatry has found physiological effects for this kind of thinking, including raised heart rate, blood pressure and cortisol, which is part of why it is treated as a mechanism rather than a complaint. Written without an abstract, from the title and public accounts of the concept.
Written from the the paper's title and public accounts of the concept it sets out.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Ehring, T. & Watkins, E. R. (2008). "Repetitive Negative Thinking as a Transdiagnostic Process." International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 1(3), 192-205.
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Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1521/ijct.2008.1.3.192
DOI: 10.1521/ijct.2008.1.3.192