Relationship between attention self-reported and objectively measured in adult patients with anxiety disorders referred to mindfulness-based group interventions.

Introduction: Most neuropsychological studies show a dissociation between the subjective complaints of attention and the results from the objective tests. Objectives: To determine the relationship between subjective complaints and objective neuropsychological test results of attention in patients with anxiety disorders referred to mindfulness-based group interventions. Methods: This study was carried out in a Mental Health Unit (Colmenar Viejo, Madrid). 46 adult patients (age range from 21 to 63) with anxiety disorders completed the pre-treatment measures and 33 out of them completed the post-treatment measures. The group treatments were Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and a Mindfulness-based Emotional Regulation intervention, during 8 weeks, guided by two Clinical Psychology residents. The outcomes were Digit span forward and Longest digit span forward (WAIS-IV), TMT, Stroop and a self-reported item about attention from the WHOQOL-BREF (the higher score, the better self-perceived attention). Pearson correlations were computed and interpreted at p < 0.05. Results: Before treatments, the self-reported measure of attention significantly correlated with the Longest digit span forward (r = .307; p = .038), Stroop Word (r = .337; p = .022), Stroop Interference (r = .320; p = .032) and TMT-A (r = -.399; p = .006). At the posttreatments, the self-reported measure of attention only significantly correlated with TMT-A (r = -.345; p = .049). These results show that the better self-perceived attention, the better performance in such objective tests. Conclusions: In patients with anxiety disorders the self-reported complaints of attention converge with objective results of the neuropsychological tests. However, after both mindfulness-based interventions this association is weaker. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]