The Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire: Psychometric validation for an Australian population

Optimized short-forms of the Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire

INTRODUCTION

The Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire (CD-Quest) is a self-report questionnaire that assesses common cognitive distortions. Although the CD-Quest has excellent psychometric properties, its length may limit its use.

METHODS

We attempted to develop short-forms of the CD-Quest using RiskSLIM - a machine learning method to build short-form scales that can be scored by hand. Each short-form was fit to maximize concordance with the total CD-Quest score for a specified number of items based on an objective function, in this case R², by selecting an optimal subset of items and an optimal set of small integer weights. The models were trained in a sample of US undergraduate students (N = 906). We then validated each short-form on five independent samples: two samples of undergraduate students in Brazil (Ns = 182, 183); patients with depression in Brazil (N = 62); patients with social anxiety disorder in the US (N = 198); and psychiatric outpatients in Turkey (N = 269).

RESULTS

A 9-item short-form with integer scoring was created that reproduced the total 15-item CD-Quest score in all validation samples with excellent accuracy (R² = 90.4-93.6%). A 5-item ultra-short-form had good accuracy (R² = 78.2-85.5%).

DISCUSSION

A 9-item short-form and a 5-item ultra-short-form of the CD-Quest both reproduced full CD-Quest scores with excellent to good accuracy. These shorter versions of the full CD-Quest could facilitate measurement of cognitive distortions for users with limited time and resources.

Relações entre Estresse, Distorções Cognitivas e Otimismo em Pacientes com Hipertensão

Resumo O estudo teve como objetivo investigar possíveis relações entre hipertensão, estresse, otimismo e distorções cognitivas. Foram utilizados como instrumentos um questionário sociobiodemográfico, o Inventário de Sintomas de Stress para Adultos de Lipp, o Questionário de Distorções Cognitivas e o Teste de Orientação de Vida Revisado. A amostra foi constituída de cinquenta pessoas com hipertensão e cinquenta sem hipertensão, de 42 a 69 anos. A maioria dos participantes não estava estressada (67%), e não houve diferença entre os grupos quanto à presença de estresse, grau de otimismo ou distorções cognitivas. No grupo com hipertensão, a presença de estresse relacionou-se de maneira direta às distorções cognitivas, sem relacionar-se ao otimismo. Já no grupo sem hipertensão a presença de estresse relacionou-se de maneira inversa ao otimismo, mas não com o escore geral de distorções cognitivas. Os resultados apontaram que a presença de hipertensão pode atuar sobre as relações entre o estresse, distorções cognitivas e otimismo.

Do sudden gains predict treatment outcome in social anxiety disorder? Findings from two randomized controlled trials

OBJECTIVE

Sudden gains (SGs) have been found to occur during randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for social anxiety disorder (SAD). Evidence is mixed whether SGs relate to treatment outcome in SAD. We examined SGs in two RCTs for SAD.

METHOD

Study 1 (N = 68) examined SGs in individual cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and Study 2 (N = 100) compared SGs in group CBT and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Weekly ratings of social anxiety were used to calculate SGs. The Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale-Self-Report and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale were completed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up to assess outcome.

RESULTS

In Study 1, 17.6% of participants experienced a SG. Participants with SGs started and ended treatment with lower social anxiety. SGs were not associated with greater decreases in social anxiety from pre-to posttreatment or 12-month follow-up. In Study 2, SGs occurred in 27% of participants and at comparable rates in MBSR and group CBT. SGs were not associated with changes in social anxiety during treatment in either condition.

CONCLUSION

SGs occurred during treatment for SAD. In both RCTs, participants improved regardless of experiencing a SG, suggesting that SGs are not predictive of greater improvement during treatment for SAD.

The Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire (CD-Quest): Validation in a Sample of Adults with Social Anxiety Disorder

Cognitive distortions are thought to be central to the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders and are a widely acknowledged treatment target in cognitive-behavioral interventions. However, little research has focused on the measurement of cognitive distortions. The Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire (CD-Quest; de Oliveira, 2015), a brief, 15-item questionnaire, assesses the frequency and intensity of cognitive distortions. The CD-Quest has been shown to have sound psychometric properties in American, Australian, and Brazilian undergraduate samples and one Turkish-speaking outpatient clinical sample. The current study aimed to provide the first evaluation of the psychometric properties of the English version of the CD-Quest in a clinical sample and the first evaluation of any version of the CD-Quest in a sample of adults diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD). In a sample of treatment-seeking adults with SAD, the CD-Quest demonstrated good convergent validity, discriminant validity, known-groups validity, and treatment sensitivity. It also showed good internal consistency, and both confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses supported the previously reported unitary factor structure. Findings extend prior research indicating the reliability and validity of the CD-Quest.