Search results for "Hypochondriasis"
showing 10 items of 26 documents
Hypochondriasis, Somatoform Disorders, and Anxiety Disorders
2012
The question of whether hypochondriasis (HYP) should be considered a somatoform disorder (SFD) or classified as an anxiety disorder (ANX) has recently been raised. To empirically provide information on this issue, we compared patients with HYP (n = 65) with those with other SFDs (n = 94) and those with ANX (n = 224) regarding sociodemographic and biographical variables, general psychopathology, and naturalistic cognitive-behavioral therapy treatment effects. Compared with SFD, patients with HYP were younger and had fewer comorbid affective disorders and less impaired life domains, suggesting a closer connection between HYP and ANX. Regarding cognitive-behavioral therapy treatment effects, a…
Therapist competence and therapeutic alliance are important in the treatment of health anxiety (hypochondriasis)
2015
The role of treatment delivery factors (i.e., therapist adherence, therapist competence, and therapeutic alliance) is rarely investigated in psychotherapeutic treatment for health anxiety. This study aimed to investigate the role of the assessment perspective for the evaluation of treatment delivery factors and their relevance for treatment outcome. Therapist adherence, therapist competence, and therapeutic alliance were evaluated by independent raters, therapists, patients, and supervisors in 68 treatments. Patients with severe health anxiety (hypochondriasis) were treated with cognitive therapy or exposure therapy. Treatment outcome was assessed with a standardized interview by independen…
Exposure therapy changes dysfunctional evaluations of somatic symptoms in patients with hypochondriasis (health anxiety). A randomized controlled tri…
2015
Dysfunctional evaluations of somatic symptoms are considered a central factor in maintaining hypochondriasis. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether exposure therapy (ET) without cognitive restructuring is sufficient to change dysfunctional evaluations of somatic symptoms. The current study was based on a randomized controlled trial and compared patients with hypochondriasis (N=73) receiving ET or cognitive therapy (CT) to a wait list (WL) control group. In both the ET and CT groups, dysfunctional symptom evaluations changed significantly compared with the WL group. No differences between the ET and CT groups emerged. The relationship between the treatment condition (active…
Health anxiety, cyberchondria, and coping in the current COVID-19 pandemic: Which factors are related to coronavirus anxiety?
2020
Highlights • First study on anxiety and cyberchondria during the COVID-19 pandemic. • The increase in virus anxiety was particularly strong with elevated health anxiety. • Health anxiety, cyberchondria, and virus anxiety are positively associated. • Combined health anxiety and cyberchondria is associated with strong virus anxiety. • Being informed and adaptive emotion regulation can have a beneficial effect.
Screening for Hypochondriasis With the Illness Attitude Scales
2010
The Illness Attitude Scales (IAS; Kellner, 1986, 1987) may prove highly useful for the screening of hypochondriasis. We expected the IAS subscales to be equally as effective as the 7-item short version of the Whiteley Index (Whiteley-7; Fink et al., 1999), which has previously been shown to be useful in screening for somatoform disorders. We investigated participants of a German population (n = 1,575) and 61 patients with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed. [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnosis of hypochondriasis. The Bodily Preoccupations (BP) subscale showed high sensitivity (.92) and specificity (.90) as well as demonstrating convergen…
Hypochondriasis and health anxiety in the German population
2007
Epidemiologic studies on hypochondriasis are very rare and have not been included in large North American community surveys until now. In order to gain information on the prevalence as well as the socio-demographic characteristics of hypochondriasis, the following community study was carried out. Analyses are based on an assessment of 1575 subjects selected by socio-demographic representation criteria for the German community. All subjects completed the Illness Attitude Scales (IAS) and responded to several additional questions on sociodemographics and diagnostic criteria pertaining to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition (DSM-IV) hypochondriasis. The IAS is…
Effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group therapy for patients with hypochondriasis (health anxiety)
2014
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to be highly effective in the treatment of health anxiety. However, little is known about the effectiveness of group CBT in the treatment of health anxiety. The current study is the largest study that has investigated the effectiveness of combined individual and group CBT for patients with the diagnosis of hypochondriasis (N=80). Therapy outcomes were evaluated by several questionnaires. Patients showed a large improvement on these primary outcome measures both post-treatment (Cohen's d=0.82-1.08) and at a 12-month follow-up (Cohen's d=1.09-1.41). Measures of general psychopathology and somatic symptoms showed significant improvements, with …
Conceptualizations of Cyberchondria and Relations to the Anxiety Spectrum: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
2021
Background Cyberchondria describes the detrimental effects of health-related internet use. Current conceptualizations agree that cyberchondria is associated with anxiety-related pathologies and may best be conceptualized as a safety behavior; however, little is known about its exact underlying mechanisms. Objective This systematic review and meta-analysis aims to give an overview of the conceptualizations of cyberchondria and its relation to anxiety-related pathologies, quantify the strength of association to health anxiety by using meta-analyses, highlight gaps in the literature, and outline a hypothetical integrative cognitive-behavioral model of cyberchondria based on the available empi…
Dysfunctional beliefs about health and illness: a family study
2019
Los modelos cognitivos sobre la hipocondría postulan que las experiencias tempranas con la enfermedad promueven el desarrollo de creencias disfuncionales sobre la enfermedad. Estas creencias pueden permanecer latentes y activarse ante un incidente crítico. Los estudios publicados aportan datos que avalan de mane- ra indirecta estos planteamientos. Teniendo en cuenta que en el núcleo familiar primario se comparten experiencias sobre la enfer- medad, examinamos la relación entre las creencias disfuncionales que los progenitores y sus descendientes mantienen sobre la en- fermedad y los pensamientos, tales como la intolerancia a la incer- tidumbre y la sobreestimación de la amenaza, y las relac…
The relationships between health anxiety, online health information seeking, and cyberchondria: Systematic review and meta-analysis
2018
© 2018 Background: Cyberchondria refers to an abnormal behavioral pattern in which excessive or repeated online searches for health-related information are distressing or anxiety-provoking. Health anxiety has been found to be associated with both online health information seeking and cyberchondria. The aims of the present systematic review and meta-analysis were to examine the magnitude of these associations and identify any moderator variables. Methods: A systematic literature search was performed across several databases (PsycINFO, PubMed, Embase) and reference lists of included studies. Results: Twenty studies were included across two independent meta-analyses, with 7373 participants. Ra…