Cognitive theories of generalized anxiety disorder.

The hallmark feature of generalized anxiety disorder, worry, has been hypothesized to be a key factor in the production of threat-related information-processing biases in the domains of attention, memory, interpretation of ambiguity, and problem solving; however, worry and cognitive biases are not unique to generalized anxiety disorder. What may be unique to generalized anxiety disorder is the pervasive use of worry as a strategy to avoid intense negative effect and the broad domains in which these biases are exhibited, directly relating to the clinical observation that patients with generalized anxiety disorder worry about numerous life stressors. Also, the authors conclude that information-processing biases contribute to worry but that they are insufficient for the development of generalized anxiety disorder. Directions for future research and clinical implications are discussed.