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← Phenome Registry

PH016 — Apprehensive Worry / Perseverative Thought

Capacity to limit sustained apprehensive worry, rumination, and difficulty disengaging from threat-anticipatory or negative perseverative thought.

How much worry, rumination, or hard-to-stop apprehensive thinking intrudes on everyday function — distinct from general emotional reactivity or stress-response intensity.

Therapeutic areas: TA001 ★TA002TA003TA006

Provenance: Introduced in registry v3 (2026) following cross-TA anxiety/depression gap analysis. Benchmarked against RDoC Negative Valence Systems (potential threat) and Cognitive Systems (perseverative thought / cognitive control) to remain distinct from Emotional Regulation (PH003) and Stress Reactivity (PH015). (origin: BRAIN)

Related phenomes: PH003 — Emotional Regulation, PH011 — Cognitive Clarity, PH015 — Stress Reactivity

External framework cross-references

RDoC domains

  • Negative Valence Systems — potential threat (anxiety)
  • Cognitive Systems — cognitive control / perseverative thought

DSM / ICD context

  • Generalised anxiety disorder
  • Major depressive disorder — rumination / worry features

Foundational Evidence

Evidence Confidence: Low–Medium

Registry-level score for this phenome's foundational evidence stack — not Biology → Phenome Confidence on individual mechanism pages.

Foundational stack combines mechanistic construct validation (Briguglio, Marsland) with translational biology→phenome and human intervention support (Kiecolt-Glaser) — not direct dietary treatment efficacy for worry disorders.

Registry-level foundational evidence for this phenome. Mechanism pages link to phenome IDs and carry relationship-specific evidence — not duplicated here.

Construct landmark papers

  • Briguglio et al. (2018) — Reviews dietary neurotransmitter biology (including serotonin) relevant to neuropsychiatric anxiety and mood contexts.
  • Marsland et al. (2017) — Links systemic inflammation to default-mode network connectivity patterns associated with perseverative thought.

Biology → phenome landmark papers

  • Marsland et al. (2017) — Neuroimmune signalling intersects default-mode hyperconnectivity relevant to worry/rumination biology.
  • Batey et al. (2024) — LPS-linked neurotransmission disruption in depression — adjacent biology for inflammatory–affective perseveration context.

Nutrition → biology landmark papers

  • Kiecolt-Glaser et al. (2011) — Omega-3 supplementation lowered anxiety and inflammatory markers in stressed adults.
  • Zelicha et al. (2022) — Polyphenol-rich dietary pattern reduced inflammatory tone — upstream context for neuroimmune worry biology.

Connected mechanisms

BRS1

BRS3