It is significantly associated with DSM - III -
R hypochondriasis, even after controlling for psychiatric comorbidity, 35 and it predicts the persistence of hypochondriacal symptoms in transiently hypochondriacal patients.17
We conducted a 4 - to 5 - year, prospective, case - control, cohort study of DSM - III -
R hypochondriasis.
Not exact matches
They
are declared «healthy» and sent on their way, or labeled as having a functional illness — a term used by some traditional medicine physicians meaning the patient has a psychiatric illness such as stress or
hypochondriasis causing their symptoms.
OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science Q
Is cognitive behavioural therapy an effective treatment for
hypochondriasis?
In both groups, patients who fulfilled DSM IV criteria for
hypochondriasis and those who only fulfilled subthreshold
hypochondriasis were included.
Among other points of critique, the DSM - IV
Hypochondriasis diagnosis has
been criticized for
being poorly and arbitrarily defined overlapping with other somatoform and psychiatric disorders [1], [4], [5], [19], [20].
Health anxiety and DSM - IV
Hypochondriasis were tested in two separate statistical models, and the expected values for the medical condition groups
were not identical despite including the same individuals.
Model 1
is for Health anxiety vs medical condition including 1066 patients with 3393 scores, model 2
is DSM - IV
Hypochondriasis vs medical condition including 1024 patients with 3237 scores.
Some patients
were lost to follow - up; the highest number in the well - defined medical condition group in which only 60 % answered the 24 - month follow - up questionnaire, whereas 66 % or more of the DSM - IV
Hypochondriasis patients, 65 % or more of the severe Health anxiety, and at least 76 % of the mild Health anxiety patients completed the follow - up questionnaire.
The scores of both the severe and mild Health anxiety and the DSM - IV
Hypochondriasis patients
were statistically significantly higher than the scores for the patients with a well - defined medical condition according to the FPs at index consultation.
The SCAN interviews
were used for computerized DSM - IV psychiatric diagnoses, including
Hypochondriasis according to DSM - IV criteria.
The differences in PCS scores between the severe Health anxiety patients, the DSM - IV
Hypochondriasis patients, and the well - defined medical condition patients
were statistically significant (Table 3).
The diagnostic criteria for
hypochondriasis were identical at inception and follow - up, however, and moderate concordance between inception and follow - up diagnosis
was obtained.
Little
is known about the management of health anxiety and
hypochondriasis in secondary care settings.
The Whiteley Index and SSI
were intercorrelated (
R = 0.52; P <.001) and together identified medical outpatients with a syndrome consistent with DSM - III
hypochondriasis.19
The clinical diagnosis of
hypochondriasis was made with the Structured Diagnostic Interview for Hypochondriasis based on operationalized DSM - III - R criteria.27 Interrater agreement with this instrument is 96 %, and the univariate correlation between the interview responses and self - report questionnaire scores is 0.75.27 The DSM diagnosis of hypochondriasis specifically excludes hypochondriacal symptoms that are better explained by another, comorbid psychiatric disorder or by major m
hypochondriasis was made with the Structured Diagnostic Interview for
Hypochondriasis based on operationalized DSM - III - R criteria.27 Interrater agreement with this instrument is 96 %, and the univariate correlation between the interview responses and self - report questionnaire scores is 0.75.27 The DSM diagnosis of hypochondriasis specifically excludes hypochondriacal symptoms that are better explained by another, comorbid psychiatric disorder or by major m
Hypochondriasis based on operationalized DSM - III -
R criteria.27 Interrater agreement with this instrument
is 96 %, and the univariate correlation between the interview responses and self - report questionnaire scores
is 0.75.27 The DSM diagnosis of
hypochondriasis specifically excludes hypochondriacal symptoms that are better explained by another, comorbid psychiatric disorder or by major m
hypochondriasis specifically excludes hypochondriacal symptoms that
are better explained by another, comorbid psychiatric disorder or by major medical illness.
Hypochondriasis thus appears to
be a disorder with a substantial burden of long - term morbidity, functional impairment, and personal distress.
Axis I psychiatric comorbidity
is common in
hypochondriasis.14 The prevalence of psychiatric disorder remained relatively stable over time in this sample, but methodological problems make these findings uncertain.
In the early 1990s, Dr. Ludgate
was a Research Clinical Psychologist at the University of Oxford in England and served as cognitive therapist in several outcome studies of panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia and
hypochondriasis.
A self - rated measure of health anxiety should
be sensitive across the full range of intensity (from mild concern to frank
hypochondriasis) and should differentiate people suffering from health anxiety from those who have actual physical illness but who
are not excessively concerned about their health.
First, the questionnaire
was validated by comparing the responses of patients suffering from
hypochondriasis with those suffering from
hypochondriasis and panic disorder, panic disorder, social phobia and non-patient controls.
The aim of the present study
was to investigate the cost effectiveness of ICBT compared with internet - delivered behavioural stress management (IBSM) for adults with severe health anxiety defined as Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM - IV)
hypochondriasis.
A development and refinement of the scale (intended to reflect more fully the range of symptoms of and reactions to
hypochondriasis)
was found to
be reliable and valid.
These features include severe health anxiety, which
is associated with increased healthcare consumption and functional impairment.1, 2 It
is also a relatively common disorder and, in the absence of treatment, it
is chronic for most patients.3, 4 Since health anxiety can
be viewed as a dimensional phenomenon, ranging from adaptive concerns to severely debilitating anxiety, 5 the term severe health anxiety
is used in this paper to denote our reference to clinically significant impaired individuals meeting diagnostic criteria of DSM - IV
hypochondriasis.