Yeung, Chi Ling;
Tang, Peiyao;
Lewis, Gemma;
Lewis, Glyn;
Wiles, Nicola;
Bone, Jessica K;
(2025)
Variation in the recall of socially rewarding information and symptoms of generalised anxiety: evidence from two cohorts.
BMC Psychiatry
, 25
, Article 1009. 10.1186/s12888-025-07402-1.
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: Cognitive theories suggest that anxiety symptoms are associated with increased recall of threatening information, but previous evidence has been inconsistent. We examined whether recall of socially rewarding or threatening information was associated with concurrent and subsequent generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms. METHODS: We used data from a cohort study ( N = 530, 68% female) and the baseline of a randomised controlled trial ( N = 653, 58% female). All participants had a history of depressive symptoms. Both studies included a computerised task assessing incidental word recall and measured GAD symptoms using the Generalised Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7). We tested concurrent associations in both samples and lagged associations in the cohort, which measured GAD scores at four time-points (two weeks apart) and recall at the first three time-points. We used multilevel linear (cohort) and linear (RCT) regression models, before and after adjusting for confounders. RESULTS: In the cohort, there was strong evidence that better recall of socially rewarding information was associated with lower GAD scores concurrently (coef=-0.18; 95% CI=-0.31–0.04). There was no evidence for an association with recall of socially threatening words (coef=-0.04, 95% CI=-0.20-0.12). Longitudinally, there was no evidence that recall of socially rewarding or threatening information was associated with subsequent GAD scores. In the RCT, there was evidence that better recall of socially rewarding information was associated with lower concurrent GAD scores (coef=-0.32; 95% CI=-0.56–0.08). CONCLUSIONS: GAD may be characterised by difficulty in recalling socially rewarding information but not memory for socially threatening information. Our findings indicate that recalling less socially rewarding information may be a marker of current GAD symptoms, but not a risk factor longitudinally.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Variation in the recall of socially rewarding information and symptoms of generalised anxiety: evidence from two cohorts |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1186/s12888-025-07402-1 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-025-07402-1 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Generalised anxiety disorder, Memory, Cohort study, RCT |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10216067 |
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