(PS1-55) Not Just Right Experiences (NJREs) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Abstract Text: Not Just Right Experiences (NJREs) are sensory and cognitive experiences in which sound, emotions, visual images, tactile, or bodily experiences are not as they should be. NJREs have been predominantly associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and are correlated with other maladaptive thinking patterns associated with OCD, including incompleteness and harm avoidance. Limited research suggests that NJREs may be associated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD; Fergus, 2013). GAD is associated with several cognitive risks, which are patterns of thinking associated with anxiety, including intolerance for uncertainty, beliefs that emotions are difficult to control, difficulty solving problems, and the use of worry to avoid changes in emotions. Research has yet to assess if NJREs can predict symptoms of GAD beyond what is explained by these cognitive risks. In this investigation, we will assess if NJREs incrementally add to the prediction of GAD symptoms beyond other cognitive risk patterns predictive of GAD.

An online sample of college-aged participants (N = 435) completed the following questionnaires: Generalized Anxiety Disorder Questionnaire-IV-Revised (GADQ4; Neuman et al., 2009), the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ; Meyer et al., 1990), the Not Just Right Experience Questionnaire Revised (NJRE; Coles et al., 2003), the Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale-Category 4 (DOCS4; Abramowitz et al., 2010), the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS-12; Carleton et al., 2007), the Difficulties in Emotional Regulation Scale-16 (DERS; Bjureberg et al., 2016), the Negative Problem Orientation Questionnaire (NPOQ; Robichaud & Dugas, 2005), and the Contrast Avoidance Questionnaire-Worry (CAQW; Llera & Newman, 2017). Both the PSWQ and GADQ4 were positively and significantly correlated with NJRE severity and DOCS4 (rs ranged from .48 to .53, ps < .001). Hierarchical regression analysis demonstrated that NJRE severity and DOCS4 predicted unique variance of GAD symptoms (adjR2 changed from .50 to .55; F(3,416) = 16.24, p < .001) over other cognitive and emotional risks for GAD, including intolerance of uncertainty. CAQW and DERS were also statistically significant predictors of GAD in the final model. Similar results were found when assessing the prediction of worry by NJRE severity (adjR2 changed from .53 to .55; F(3,416) = 4.94, p < .001) over other GAD cognitive risks. The results suggest that NJREs are not a unique cognitive risk for OCD and are critical to the experience of symptoms of GAD. The results suggest that cognitive-behavioral assessment and intervention should be broadened to include addressing NJREs associated with GAD.