Does disgust play a role in anxiety disorders?

The Journal of Anxiety Disorders has published a special issue (Volume 16, Number 5, 2002) on the role of disgust in the anxiety disorders. Apparently, the idea that disgust plays an important role in at least some of the anxiety disorders has gained quite a bit of empirical support over the past decade.

It appears that disgust is most strongly involved in specific phobias such as spider phobias, small animal phobias, and blood and injury phobias.

This issue of the Journal of Anxiety Disorders includes interesting empirical studiesn and an interesting theoretical discussion by Rich McNally.

(At this point I'm not sure that this line of research has major clinical implications. My bet is that disgust will respond to exposure-based treatment the same way as anxiety does)

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