Thought-action fusion

Short description: Category of painful thinking or beliefs

Not to be confused with intrusive thoughts.

Thought-action fusion

False beliefs from self-confusing mind-wandering about biased interpretations of intrusive thoughts are painful.
Specialty| Psychiatry, clinical psychology

Thought-Action Fusion (TAF) is the tendency for individuals to assume that certain thoughts either increase the likelihood of catastrophic events (likelihood-TAF) or imply the immorality of their character (morality-TAF).[1][2]

In more technical terms, TAF is a polyseme defining false beliefs or self-confusing mind wandering about a biased and painful association/fusion between subjects' spontaneous thoughts and imaginary latent egodystonic desires or magical-thinking capabilities.[3][4] These imaginary latent egodystonic desires or magical-thinking capabilities generally express harmful actions/behaviours (e.g., compulsions) that subjects appraise as highly possible, even though they have never existed so far.[3][4][5]

## Contents

* 1 Causes
* 2 Examples
* 3 Categories
* 4 Diagnosis
* 5 Disorders
* 6 Treatments
* 7 See also
* 8 References

## Causes

The main causes of TAF are (one or several) hold false beliefs that mind-wandering episodes involving cognitive/interpretation biases have generated, from specific patterns of intrusive thoughts.[3][4][5] Besides, a high level of negative affectivity is a mediator in the statistical relations between TAF and the existence of psychological pains (e.g. anxiety, depression and shame), or some mental disorders.[3][4]

## Examples

An ADAA webinar highlighted several examples of TAF,[6] such as:

Intrusive thoughts | Cognitive biases | False beliefs

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Driving is exciting, but anyone can run down pedestrians. | This terrible thought is definitively a sign. | I am losing control; I am going to run over a pedestrian anytime...
My sharp knife could kill a baby. | This horrific thought is almost surely revealing. | I am probably going to kill my child in the near future...

## Categories

The two main categories of TAF are the:

* Likelihood TAF, i.e. anxious and false beliefs (e.g. magical thinking) assuming that specific intrusive thoughts would trigger the (thought) harmful events in the future;[3][5]
* Moral TAF, i.e. uncertainty-evoking and false beliefs that specific intrusive thoughts about religiously or ethically/morally inappropriate behaviours, are as reprehensible or shameful as actually performing the intrusive thoughts' content.[3][4]

## Diagnosis

Simple interviews with specific health professionals (e.g. psychologists, psychiatrists) allow diagnosing TAF; there also exists a reliable psychometrics/estimator which is the: thought-action fusion questionnaire/scale.[7][8]

## Disorders

TAF happens in the anxiety disorders (e.g. GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorders (e.g. pure O) and eating disorders (e.g. anorexia); it generally worsens the mental disorders' severities or outcomes, irrespective of the treatments.[3][9][5]

## Treatments

The main medial treatments for TAF are the cognitive-behavioral therapies,[3] but mindfulness therapies like the acceptance and commitment therapy may also help.[10][11] Moreover medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may increase the psychotherapy efficiency,[12] by alleviating the psychological pains the TAF induces--see section on Causes.

## See also

* Mental disorders
* GAD
* Pure O
* Anorexia
* Medical treatments
* Psychotherapies

## References

1. ↑ Thompson-Hollands, Johanna, Todd J. Farchione, and David H. Barlow (May 2013). "Thought-action fusion across anxiety disorder diagnoses: Specificity and treatment effects". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 201 (5): 407–413. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e31828e102c. PMID 23595095.
2. ↑ Berle, David, and Vladan Starcevic (May 2005). "Thought-action fusion: review of the literature and future directions". Clinical Psychology Review 25 (3): 263–284. doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2004.12.001. PMID 15792850.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 "Thought-action fusion across anxiety disorder diagnoses: specificity and treatment effects". The Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases 201 (5): 407-413. 2013. doi:10.1097/NMD.0b013e31828e102c. PMID 23595095.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 "Predicting negative emotions in response to in vivo triggers of thought-action fusion". Journal Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders 33. 2022. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2022.100723.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "The role of magical thinking, sensitivity, and thought content in thought-action fusion". Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 41 (2): 128–154. 2022. doi:10.1521/jscp.2022.41.2.128.
6. ↑ Kissen D, Greene P (2020). "What are intrusive thoughts and how can you deal with them". YouTube (Podcast). ADAA. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
7. ↑ "Thought-action fusion in obsessive compulsive disorder". Journal of Anxiety Disorders 10 (5): 379–391. 1996. doi:10.1016/0887-6185(96)00018-7.
8. ↑ "Psychometric evaluation of the thought–action fusion scale in a large clinical sample". Assessment 20 (6): 764–775. 2012. doi:10.1177/1073191112436670. PMID 22315482.
9. ↑ "Obsessive compulsive disorder and thought action fusion: Relationships with eating disorder outcomes". Eating Behaviurs 37: 101386. 2020. doi:10.1177/1073191112436670. PMID 32388080.
10. ↑ "The effect of mindfulness therapy on tolerance of uncertainty and thought-action fusion in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder". Quarterly Journal of Child Mental Health 6 (1). 2019.
11. ↑ "Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on the signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder and thought-action fusion in the students with obsessive-compulsive disorder". Journal of Psychological Science 18 (73). 2019.
12. ↑ "Effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on thought-action fusion, metacognitions, and thought suppression in obsessive-compulsive disorder". Comprehensive Psychiatry 52 (5): 556–561. 2011. doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2010.10.003. PMID 21109243.

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