| Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 903663 | Clinical Psychology Review | 2012 | 13 Pages |
Recent theories of psychopathology have suggested that thought suppression intensifies the persistence of intrusive thoughts, and proposed that difficulty with thought suppression may differ between groups with and without psychopathology. The current meta-analytic review evaluates empirical evidence for difficulty with thought suppression as a function of the presence and specific type of psychopathology. Based on theoretical proposals from the psychopathology literature, diagnosed and analogue samples were expected to show greater recurrence of intrusive thoughts during thought suppression attempts than non-clinical samples. However, results showed no overall differences in the recurrence of thoughts due to thought suppression between groups with and without psychopathology. There was, nevertheless, variation in the recurrence of thoughts across different forms of psychopathology, including relatively less recurrence during thought suppression for samples with symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, compared to non-clinical samples. However, these differences were typically small and provided only mixed support for existing theories. Implications for cognitive theories of intrusive thoughts are discussed, including proposed mechanisms underlying thought suppression.
► Many theories of psychopathology predict amplified thought suppression difficulty. ► We review suppression data according to the presence and type of psychopathology. ► We review three potential mechanisms underlying thought suppression. ► Differences between clinical and control samples tend to be minimal. ► Theories must consider subjective experience in addition to thought recurrence.
