Anxiety sensitivity may cause depression: study

BEIJING. December 2. KAZINFORM Anxiety sensitivity of "above-average" worriers may cause depression symptoms, said a U.S. study in December's issue of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders as quoted by media Wednesday; Kazinform refers to Xinhua.
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"Anxiety sensitivity has been called a fear of fear," study author Andres Viana, a graduate student in psychology at Penn State, said in a news release. "Those with anxiety sensitivity are afraid of their anxiety because their interpretation is that something catastrophic is going to happen when their anxious sensations arise."

Researchers collected 94 questionnaires completed by 94 volunteers, average age 19, to assess worry, generalized anxiety and depression of those people.

The responses showed that anxiety sensitivity significantly predicted depression symptoms. The researchers also found that two of the four issues that comprise anxiety sensitivity -- the "fear of cognitive dyscontrol" and the "fear of publically observable anxiety symptoms" -- specifically predicted depression symptoms. The two other issues -- the "fear of cardiovascular symptoms" and the "fear of respiratory symptoms" -- weren't significant predictors of depression; Kazinform cites Xinhua.

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