ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a review of findings on the impact of attentional procedures in modifying the characteristics of emotional disorders. Patients with depression and in particular anxiety report the use of distraction procedures in coping with their problem. The chapter reviews that the mixed picture of the effects of distraction-based manipulations in the treatment of anxiety and depression. In general, and in contrast with the view that distraction may compromise treatment effectiveness, distraction appears to have at least short-term beneficial effects on anxiety measures. The chapter reviews the number of issues which compound the interpretation of the data. First, it is difficult to disentangle the effects of attention manipulations from the broader treatment techniques which have been used in concert with attentional strategies in some studies. Second, attention has been treated as a relatively uncomplicated variable in most studies. The third issue concerns the context in which distraction is embedded as a strategy.
