ArticlePloS one2021
Counterfactual thinking in psychiatric and neurological diseases: A scoping review.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 9 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- A causal role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in regulating anticipated regret and risk behaviors in trait anxiety.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Perceived Determinants of Excellent Self-Rated Health Among HIV Virally Suppressed Adults in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Effects of congruent and incongruent appetitive and aversive well-being comparisons on depression, post-traumatic stress, and self-esteem.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
- Update on "Emotion and autobiographical memory": 14 years of advances in understanding functions, constructions, and consequences.Physics of life reviews · 2024Review
- Counterfactual thinking induces different neural patterns of memory modification in anxious individuals.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Correction: Counterfactual thinking in psychiatric and neurological diseases: A scoping review.PloS one · 2024Article
- The asymmetric impact of decision-making confidence on regret and relief.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- An exploratory study on counterfactual thinking in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Prevalence and predictors of diabetes-related distress in adults with type 1 diabetes.Scientific reports · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
10 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe ability to simulate alternatives to factual events is called counterfactual thinking (CFT) and it is involved both in emotional and behavioral regulation. CFT deficits have been reported in psychiatric and neurological conditions, possibly contributing to patients' difficulties in modulating behaviors and affections. Thus, acknowledging the presence and possible consequences of CFT impairments might be essential for optimal clinical management.
objectivesThis scoping review aims to summarize the previous evidence about CFT in psychiatric and neurological diseases to determine the extent of the previous research and what has been discovered so far, the variety of clinical conditions considered, the methodologies adopted, and the relevant issues to be addressed by future investigations.
methodsPsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched to identify articles published up to January 2020, written in English and focused on CFT in adults affected by psychiatric or neurological conditions.
resultsTwenty-nine studies have been included; most of them focused on psychiatric conditions, a minority considered neurological diseases. The generation of counterfactual thoughts related to a negative real-life or a fictional event and the counterfactual inference test were the most popular tasks adopted. CFT impairments were reported in both psychiatric and neurological conditions, likely associated with a fronto-executive dysfunction.
conclusionsFuture research might further explore CFT in those psychiatric and neurological conditions in which CFT difficulties have been preliminary reported. Furthermore, it would be recommendable to extend this investigation to all the clinical conditions possibly at risk of fronto-executive dysfunction. In the end, we speculate that since CFT plays a role in driving everyday behaviors, it might be crucial also when medical decisions are involved; thus, future research might extend the investigation of CFT especially to those populations that implicate complex clinical management.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.