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The Role of Distress Tolerance as a Potential Mechanism Between Anxiety Sensitivity and Gut-Specific Anxiety

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Abstract

Background

The link between anxiety/fear and gut dysfunction has been robustly documented in both physical and mental health literatures. The current study explored distress tolerance as a potential mechanism in the relation between anxiety sensitivity and gut-specific anxiety.

Method

A cross-sectional sample of 828 adults completed measures of distress tolerance, gut-specific anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to determine variable associations, including potential mediating factors.

Results

The results demonstrated a bidirectional relation between anxiety sensitivity and gut-specific anxiety (ß = 0.23, p < 0.001; ß = 0.22, p < 0.001). Findings suggest distress tolerance is a significant mediator that may partially explain the relation between gut-specific anxiety and anxiety sensitivity more broadly (ß = 0.11, CI [0.07–0.14]). Mediation results were consistent when individual subscales of distress tolerance or anxiety sensitivity were incorporated.

Conclusion

The outcome of the present study merits additional examination of the psychosomatic nature of distress tolerance as a potential clinical target for individuals with both anxiety and gut-related disorders.

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Notes

  1. Fear and stress also are likely involved; the terminology in describing these states is inexact, so “anxiety” will be used as an omnibus term for the purposes of this paper (see Felicione et al. [7]).

  2. Moderation models also were conducted. Distress tolerance was not a statistically significant moderator in the relation between anxiety sensitivity and gut-specific anxiety while accounting for covariates.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the participants for their contributions to this work.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR F31-DE027859, R01-DE014889 and R21-DE026540) and by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS T32-GM132494).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, West Virginia University, 53 Campus Drive, PO Box 6040, Morgantown, WV, 26505, USA

    Casey D. Wright, Cecelia I. Nelson, Jamey T. Brumbaugh & Daniel W. McNeil

  2. Department of Dental and Rural Practice, School of Dentistry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA

    Daniel W. McNeil

Authors
  1. Casey D. Wright
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  2. Cecelia I. Nelson
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  4. Daniel W. McNeil
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Correspondence to Casey D. Wright or Daniel W. McNeil.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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Wright, C.D., Nelson, C.I., Brumbaugh, J.T. et al. The Role of Distress Tolerance as a Potential Mechanism Between Anxiety Sensitivity and Gut-Specific Anxiety. Int.J. Behav. Med. 27, 717–725 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12529-020-09912-6

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