Thought-action fusion

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Thought-action fusion
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False beliefs from self-confusing mind-wandering about biased interpretations of intrusive thoughts are painful.
Specialty Psychiatry, clinical psychology

Thought-Action Fusion (TAF) is the tendency for individuals to assume that certain thoughts either increase the likelihood of catastrophic events (likelihood-TAF) or imply the immorality of their character (morality-TAF). [1] [2]

Contents

In more technical terms, TAF is a polyseme defining false beliefs or self-confusing mind wandering about a biased and painful association/fusion between subjects' spontaneous thoughts and imaginary latent egodystonic desires or magical-thinking capabilities. [3] [4] These imaginary latent egodystonic desires or magical-thinking capabilities generally express harmful actions/behaviours (e.g., compulsions) that subjects appraise as highly possible, even though they have never existed so far. [3] [4] [5]

Causes

The main causes of TAF are (one or several) hold false beliefs that mind-wandering episodes involving cognitive/interpretation biases have generated, from specific patterns of intrusive thoughts. [3] [4] [5] Besides, a high level of negative affectivity is a mediator in the statistical relations between TAF and the existence of psychological pains (e.g. anxiety, depression and shame), or some mental disorders. [3] [4]

Examples

An ADAA webinar highlighted several examples of TAF, [6] such as:

Intrusive thoughtsCognitive biasesFalse beliefs
Driving is exciting, but anyone can run down pedestrians.This terrible thought is definitively a sign.I am losing control; I am going to run over a pedestrian anytime...
My sharp knife could kill a baby.This horrific thought is almost surely revealing.I am probably going to kill my child in the near future...

Categories

The two main categories of TAF are the:

Diagnosis

Simple interviews with specific health professionals (e.g. psychologists, psychiatrists) allow diagnosing TAF; there also exists a reliable psychometrics/estimator which is the: thought-action fusion questionnaire/scale. [7] [8]

Disorders

TAF happens in the anxiety disorders (e.g. GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorders (e.g. pure O) and eating disorders (e.g. anorexia); it generally worsens the mental disorders' severities or outcomes, irrespective of the treatments. [3] [9] [5]

Treatments

The main medial treatments for TAF are the cognitive-behavioral therapies, [3] but mindfulness therapies like the acceptance and commitment therapy may also help. [10] [11] Moreover medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may increase the psychotherapy efficiency, [12] by alleviating the psychological pains the TAF induces—see section on Causes.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Thompson-Hollands, Johanna, Todd J. Farchione, and David H. Barlow (May 2013). "Thought-action fusion across anxiety disorder diagnoses: Specificity and treatment effects". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 201 (5): 407–413. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e31828e102c. PMC   3645350 . PMID   23595095.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ Berle, David, and Vladan Starcevic (May 2005). "Thought-action fusion: review of the literature and future directions". Clinical Psychology Review. 25 (3): 263–284. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2004.12.001. hdl: 1959.4/unsworks_42622 . PMID   15792850.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Thompson-Hollands J, Todd F, Barlow D (2013). "Thought-action fusion across anxiety disorder diagnoses: specificity and treatment effects". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases. 201 (5): 407–413. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e31828e102c. PMC   3645350 . PMID   23595095.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Siev J, Berman N, Zhou R, Himelein-Wachowiak K (2022). "Predicting negative emotions in response to in vivo triggers of thought-action fusion". Journal Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. 33 100723. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2022.100723. S2CID   247076174.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Fite R, Magee J (2022). "The role of magical thinking, sensitivity, and thought content in thought-action fusion". Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 41 (2): 128–154. doi:10.1521/jscp.2022.41.2.128. S2CID   247988317.
  6. ↑ Kissen D, Greene P (2020). "What are intrusive thoughts and how can you deal with them". YouTube (Podcast). ADAA. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
  7. ↑ Shafran R, Thordarson D, Rachman S (1996). "Thought-action fusion in obsessive compulsive disorder". Journal of Anxiety Disorders. 10 (5): 379–391. doi:10.1016/0887-6185(96)00018-7.
  8. ↑ Meyer J, Brown T (2012). "Psychometric evaluation of the thought–action fusion scale in a large clinical sample". Assessment. 20 (6): 764–775. doi:10.1177/1073191112436670. PMC   4418236 . PMID   22315482.
  9. ↑ Lee E, Barney J, Twohig M, Lensegrav-Benson T, Quakenbush B (2020). "Obsessive compulsive disorder and thought action fusion: Relationships with eating disorder outcomes". Eating Behaviurs. 37: 101386. doi:10.1177/1073191112436670. PMC   4418236 . PMID   32388080.
  10. ↑ Azad M, Manshaei G, Ghamarani A (2019). "The effect of mindfulness therapy on tolerance of uncertainty and thought-action fusion in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder". Quarterly Journal of Child Mental Health. 6 (1).
  11. ↑ Azad M, Manshaei G, Ghamarani A (2019). "Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on the signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder and thought-action fusion in the students with obsessive-compulsive disorder". Journal of Psychological Science. 18 (73).
  12. ↑ Besiroglu L, Çetinkaya N, Selvi Y, Atli A (2011). "Effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on thought-action fusion, metacognitions, and thought suppression in obsessive-compulsive disorder". Comprehensive Psychiatry. 52 (5): 556–561. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2010.10.003. PMID   21109243.
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