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Prospective mental imagery in patients with major depressive disorder or anxiety disorders

Prospective mental imagery in patients with major depressive disorder or anxiety disorders
Prospective mental imagery in patients with major depressive disorder or anxiety disorders
Prospective negative cognitions are suggested to play an important role in maintaining anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder (MDD). However, little is known about positive prospective mental imagery. This study investigated differences in prospective mental imagery among 27 patients with anxiety disorders, 24 patients with MDD, and 32 control participants. Measures of both deliberately generated and intrusive imagery were completed. Results indicated that both patients with anxiety disorders and those with MDD provided poorer vividness ratings for deliberately generated prospective positive scenarios compared to the control group. Patients with anxiety disorders showed a greater ability to vividly generate imagery for prospective negative scenarios than both patients with MDD and control participants. Finally, both clinical groups reported greater levels of intrusive prospective imagery of personally-relevant events as compared to the control group. The current findings underline the necessity to target prospective positive mental imagery in treating MDD and anxiety disorders.
0887-6185
1032-1037
Morina, N.
55926302-4d2e-43ca-a222-c1a37aab7151
Deeprose, C.
bbb2998d-91c3-4d2d-93c7-98b9335823ca
Pusowski, C.
36903450-6f20-426d-abca-a1acbb0490d5
Schmid, M.
7a4765eb-ec80-4af4-854e-1f70c45032a7
Holmes, E.A.
a6379ab3-b182-45f8-87c9-3e07e90fe469
Morina, N.
55926302-4d2e-43ca-a222-c1a37aab7151
Deeprose, C.
bbb2998d-91c3-4d2d-93c7-98b9335823ca
Pusowski, C.
36903450-6f20-426d-abca-a1acbb0490d5
Schmid, M.
7a4765eb-ec80-4af4-854e-1f70c45032a7
Holmes, E.A.
a6379ab3-b182-45f8-87c9-3e07e90fe469

Morina, N., Deeprose, C., Pusowski, C., Schmid, M. and Holmes, E.A. (2011) Prospective mental imagery in patients with major depressive disorder or anxiety disorders. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25 (8), 1032-1037. (doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.06.012).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Prospective negative cognitions are suggested to play an important role in maintaining anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder (MDD). However, little is known about positive prospective mental imagery. This study investigated differences in prospective mental imagery among 27 patients with anxiety disorders, 24 patients with MDD, and 32 control participants. Measures of both deliberately generated and intrusive imagery were completed. Results indicated that both patients with anxiety disorders and those with MDD provided poorer vividness ratings for deliberately generated prospective positive scenarios compared to the control group. Patients with anxiety disorders showed a greater ability to vividly generate imagery for prospective negative scenarios than both patients with MDD and control participants. Finally, both clinical groups reported greater levels of intrusive prospective imagery of personally-relevant events as compared to the control group. The current findings underline the necessity to target prospective positive mental imagery in treating MDD and anxiety disorders.

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Accepted/In Press date: 24 June 2011
e-pub ahead of print date: 1 July 2011

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 507968
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/507968
ISSN: 0887-6185
PURE UUID: 6d9c458d-0e18-47ef-810e-5e4d6b6ab2d9
ORCID for E.A. Holmes: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-7319-3112

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Date deposited: 08 Jan 2026 17:48
Last modified: 09 Jan 2026 03:08

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Contributors

Author: N. Morina
Author: C. Deeprose
Author: C. Pusowski
Author: M. Schmid
Author: E.A. Holmes ORCID iD

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