Perseverative cognition

Perseverative cognition is a collective term in scientific psychology for continuous thinking about negative events in the past or in the future (e.g. worry, rumination, brooding, but also mind wandering about negative topics ). The psychological concept of perseverative cognition helps to explain how psychological stress, such as work stress and marital stress, leads to disease, such as cardiovascular disease. Perseverative cognition may partly be unconscious. In 2013 the term perseverative cognition was included in the Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

The 'perseverative cognition hypothesis'

The ‘perseverative cognition hypothesis’ (proposed by Brosschot, Gerin and Thayer) holds that stressful events cannot affect one's health, unless they worry about these stressful events. It proposes that perseverative thoughts could be a mediator of the detrimental effects of stress on one's health. Since its publication scientific evidence for this hypothesis has been accumulating .

See also

• Chronic stress
• Cognition
• Mindfulness-based stress reduction
• Stress (psychological)
• Unconscious cognition

References

• Borkovec, T.D., Ray, W.J., & Stöber, J. (1998).Worry: A cognitive phenomenon intimately linked to affective, physiological, and interpersonal behavioral processes. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 22, 561-576.
• Brosschot, J. F. & Van Der Doef, M. (2006). Daily worrying and somatic health complaints:Testing the effectiveness of a simple worry reduction intervention. Psychology & Health, 21, 19-31.
• Brosschot, J.F, Gerin, W. & Thayer, J.F. (2006) Worry and health: the perseverative cognition hypothesis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 60, 113-12.
• Brosschot, J.F., Pieper, S. & Thayer J.F. (2005) Expanding Stress Theory: Prolonged Activation And Perseverative Cognition. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30(10):1043-9.
• Brosschot, J.F., Verkuil, B. & Thayer, J.F. (2010) Conscious and unconscious perseverative cognition: Is a large part of prolonged physiological activity due to unconscious stress? Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 69(4), 407-16.
• Brosschot, J.F. (2010) Markers of chronic stress: Prolonged physiological activation and (un)conscious perseverative cognition. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 35, 46–50.
• Jellesma, F.C., Verkuil, B., & Brosschot, J.F.(2009) Postponing worrisome thoughts in children: The effects of a postponement intervention on perseverative thoughts, emotions and somatic complaints. Social Science & Medicine, 69, 278-284.
• Larsen, B.A & Christenfeld, N.J.S. (2009) Cardiovascular Disease and Psychiatric Comorbidity: The Potential Role of Perseverative Cognition. Cardiovascular Psychiatry and Neurology, vol. 2009, Article ID 791017, 8 pages, 2009. doi:10.1155/2009/791017
• Ottaviani, C., Shapiro, D., Couyoumdjian, A. (2013) Flexibility as the key for somatic health: From mind wandering to perseverative cognition. Biological Psychology, 94(1), 38-43.
• Thayer J.F. & Brosschot J.F. (2000c) Delayed cardiovascular recovery: perseverative thinking and vagal inhibition. Psychophysiology, 37, S13.
• Verkuil, B. (2010) Perseverative cognition : the impact of worry on health. Doctoral thesis, Leiden University. ISBN 9789085704980
• Watkins, E.R (2008) Constructive and unconstructive repetitive though. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 163-206.
• Thayer J.F. & Brosschot J.F. (2010), Stress, health and illness: The effects of prolonged physiological activity and perseverative cognition. In: French D., Kaptein A., Vedhara K., Weinman J. (Red.) Health Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. 247-259.
• Zoccola, P.M., Dickerson, S.D. & Yim, I. S. (2011) Trait and state perseverative cognition and the cortisol awakening response 1: Psychoneuroendocrinology, 36(4), 592-595.