Rumination and Cognitive Behavioral Avoidance in Unipolar Mood Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder: Comparison between Dimensional and Categorical Approaches

The aim of current study was to investigate two factors of rumination and avoidance in healthy and with depression and social anxiety disorder individuals. Thirty patients with unipolar mood disorder، 30 patients with social anxiety disorder and 120 nonclinical samples were selected by accessible sampling method. Data gathering was by Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)، Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II)، General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)، Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ)، Cognitive Behavioral Avoidance Scale (CBAS) and Post Event Processing Questionnaire (PEPQ). In addition to descriptive statistics methods، discriminant function analysis was used to reveal major differences among the groups. The findings showed significant difference between individuals with depression and with social anxiety groups in cognitive nonsocial avoidance (p<0. 001)، behavioral nonsocial avoidance (p<0. 001) and rumination (p<0. 001)، and no significant difference for post event processing، social avoidance and distraction. The cognitive nonsocial avoidance and rumination variables were the best predictors for distinguishing social anxiety group from depressed group. The current study showed some overlap in cognitive psychopathology of unipolar disorders and social anxiety. It seems that rumination، post event processing and avoidance are on a continuum from normal to abnormal. However، rumination and cognitive nonsocial avoidance were distinctive features of depression. This study provided evidence to support both dimensional and categorical approaches.