Memory bias in panic disorder.

We investigated selective memory effects in patients with panic disorder. Thirty patients with panic disorder and 20 normal controls learned panic-related, strongly pleasant, and strongly unpleasant words. During the incidental learning task, Ss imagined scenes combining the referent of a presented word with themselves. After a distractor task, Ss took a free-recall test. Panic Ss showed enhanced memory for panic-related words but not for positive or negative words.