Emotional and Behavioral Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Health Anxiety, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Distress (In)Tolerance.
The COVID-19 pandemic represents a worldwide threat to mental health. To optimize the allocation of health care resources, research on specific vulnerability factors, such as health anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and distress (in)tolerance, and particularly their effect on the time course of SARS-CoV-2 related anxiety appears crucial for supporting high risk groups suffering from elevated mental distress during the pandemic. N = 887 participants (78.4% female
Emotionserleben und somatische Beschwerden
Zusammenfassung. Theoretischer Hintergrund: Aktuelle Modelle der Wahrnehmung körperlicher Beschwerden gehen davon aus, dass negative emotionale Zustände (z. B. Angst und Traurigkeit) eine zentrale Rolle bei der Symptomwahrnehmung spielen. Eine kausale Wirkung von Ärger auf den körperlichen Symptombericht wurde hingegen noch nicht ausreichend nachgewiesen. Fragestellung: Führt eine experimentelle Induktion von Ärger und Traurigkeit zu einem verstärkten Bericht körperlicher Beschwerden? Methode: 90 Studienteilnehmende wurden zufällig drei experimentellen Bedingungen zugewiesen. Mit einer autobiografischen Methodik wurden Ärger (n = 30) und Traurigkeit (n = 30) induziert. Eine dritte Gruppe (…
Do patients with pathological health anxiety fear COVID-19? A time-course analysis of 12 single cases during the “first wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany
Objective Pre-existing health anxiety is associated with an intensified affective response to the novel COVID-19 pandemic in the general population. Still, results on the reaction of people with a diagnosis of pathological health anxiety (i.e., hypochondriasis) are scarce. Methods In the present study, we investigated the course of (health) anxiety related to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 in comparison to (health) anxiety related to other severe diseases (e.g., cancer) in a sample of 12 patients with the diagnosis of pathological health anxiety during the “first wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany. Both SARS-CoV-2 related anxiety and anxiety related to other severe diseases were assessed weekly…