Search results for "health anxiety"
showing 10 items of 13 documents
Cognitive Biases in Pathological Health Anxiety
2016
Pathological health anxiety refers to the medically unfounded fear of suffering from a severe illness. Differences in cognitive processes related to attention, memory, and evaluation of health threat have been hypothesized to underlie pathological health anxiety. In no study, however, have researchers systematically and simultaneously assessed different cognitive biases. On the basis of the idea that multiple cognitive biases simultaneously contribute to psychopathology (the combined-cognitive-bias hypothesis), we compared 88 patients with pathological health anxiety, 52 patients with depressive disorder, and 52 healthy participants on their performance in several cognitive tasks involving…
Health anxiety and hypochondriasis in the light of DSM-5.
2015
Background: In the DSM-5, the diagnosis of hypochondriasis was replaced by two new diagnositic entities: somatic symptom disorder (SSD) and illness anxiety disorder (IAD). Both diagnoses share high health anxiety as a common criterion, but additonal somatic symptoms are only required for SSD but not IAD.Design: Our aim was to provide empirical evidence for the validity of these new diagnoses using data from a case–control study of highly health-anxious (n = 96), depressed (n = 52), and healthy (n = 52) individuals.Results: The individuals originally diagnosed as DSM-IV hypochondriasis predominantly met criteria for SSD (74%) and rarely for IAD (26%). Individuals with SSD were more impaired,…
Emotional and Behavioral Consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Health Anxiety, Intolerance of Uncertainty, and Distress (In)Tolerance.
2020
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
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.
Lifestyle Habits and Mental Health in Light of the Two COVID-19 Pandemic Waves in Sweden, 2020
2021
The COVID-19 pandemic has become a public health emergency of international concern, which may have affected lifestyle habits and mental health. Based on national health profile assessments, this study investigated perceived changes of lifestyle habits in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and associations between perceived lifestyle changes and mental health in Swedish working adults. Among 5599 individuals (50% women, 46.3 years), the majority reported no change (sitting 77%, daily physical activity 71%, exercise 69%, diet 87%, alcohol 90%, and smoking 97%) due to the pandemic. Changes were more pronounced during the first wave (April–June) compared to the second (October–December). Women,…
Predictors of Psychological Distress and Coronavirus Fears in the First Recovery Phase of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic in Germany
2021
Objectives: While previous research has mainly focused on the impact of the first acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, little empirical knowledge exists about depression, anxiety, and somatic symptom levels and possible predictors of symptom levels in the pandemic’s recovery phase. The present study aimed to analyze the mental burden of a convenience ample of the general German population during the first recovery phase of the pandemic and to identify significant predictors of symptom levels.Methods: Standardized measures of anxiety (GAD-2), depression (PHQ-2), somatic symptoms (PHQ-15), and health anxiety, as well as measures of COVID-19 fears and possible vulnerability f…
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…
The Spanish validation of the Short Health Anxiety Inventory: Psychometric properties and clinical utility
2019
The Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI) is a widely used self-report instrument to evaluate health anxiety. To assess the SHAI's factor structure, psychometric properties, and accuracy in differentiating Spanish non-clinical individuals from patients with severe health anxiety or hypochondriasis.A total of 342 community participants (61.6% women;The original two-factor structure was selected as the best structure, based on its parsimony and empirical support (Factor 1: Illness likelihood; Factor 2: Negative consequences of illness). Moreover, the Spanish version of the SHAI demonstrated good construct and concurrent and discriminant validity, and internal consistency. A cutoff of 40.5 (to…
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 pandemi…
2021
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…
Vulnerabilidad cognitiva a la hipocondría: intrusiones, valoraciones y creencias disfuncionales/ Cognitive vulnerability to hypochondriasis: intrusio…
2019
La hipocondría es un trastorno caracterizado por el miedo o la creencia de padecer una enfermedad grave a partir de la interpretación negativa de los signos y síntomas corporales. La confirmación por parte de un médico, después de una evaluación exhaustiva, de que el paciente no padece una enfermedad médica, no tiene como resultado una tranquilización segura y duradera. Por lo general, las personas que presentan hipocondría pueden experimentar una reducción de la ansiedad después de visitar al médico, pero esta reducción dura solo horas o días. Cuando se presenta otro síntoma, la ansiedad reaparece y el ciclo de preocupación hipocondríaca se reanuda. Además, la hipocondría se puede manifest…