Hypochondriasis and health anxiety: conceptual challenges

@article{Starcevic2013HypochondriasisAH,
  title={Hypochondriasis and health anxiety: conceptual challenges},
  author={Vladan Starcevic},
  journal={British Journal of Psychiatry},
  year={2013},
  volume={202},
  pages={7 - 8}
}
  • V. Starcevic
  • Published 1 January 2013
  • Psychology, Medicine
  • British Journal of Psychiatry
Summary The relationship between hypochondriasis and health anxiety is examined by considering a DSM-5 proposal to replace the current heterogeneous concept of hypochondriasis with two disorders. The key issues are to ascertain whether these conditions are relatively distinct and whether they adequately represent the full range of clinical manifestations encompassed by hypochondriasis. 

Hypochondriasis: treatment options for a diagnostic quagmire

    V. Starcevic
    Medicine, Psychology
    Australasian psychiatry : bulletin of Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists
  • 2015
The conceptual and diagnostic conundrums surrounding hypochondriasis are presented and current treatment options for this disorder are reviewed, showing that psychological treatments have been more useful than pharmacotherapy, but there is much room for improving treatment outcomes.

Predictors and consequences of health anxiety symptoms: a novel twin modeling study

The aim was to examine the relationship between HA and the symptoms of anxiety and obsessive–compulsive‐related disorders in a normative twin population.

Is the DSM-5 chapter on somatic symptom disorder any better than DSM-IV somatoform disorder?

    R. Mayou
    Psychology, Philosophy
    British Journal of Psychiatry
  • 2014
The chapter text is incoherent, contradicts the classification and will be clinically unhelpful, and ICD-11 should attempt a more logical and consistent revision.

Somatization disorder and hypochondriasis: as like as two peas?

The results show that except for health anxiety levels, hypochondriasis and somatization disorder are similar in terms of psychological variables, and support the opinions about the necessity of new categorization in these disorders.

Should we deplore the disappearance of hypochondriasis from DSM-5?

    V. Starcevic
    Medicine, Psychology
    The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry
  • 2014
The main hope for taming diagnostic inflation in psychiatry is the growing reaction against over-diagnosis in all of medicine sponsored by the British Medical Journal (and strongly supported in Australia by work done at Bond University).

The departure of hypochondriasis is no loss

    P. TyrerH. Tyrer
    Medicine, Psychology
    The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry
  • 2014
Health anxiety, or its equivalent antonym, illness anxiety disorder, is one of the strong assets of the DSM revision, as it places the former symptoms of hypochondriasis firmly amongst the anxiety disorders.

Hipocondría en la infancia y adolescencia. Revisión bibliográfica

The systematic revision of the literature suggests that an accurate diagnosis and management requires a multidisciplinary approach and appropriate managing should involve the main support group and focus in the recovery of the functionality according to the age of the patient.

The Concept of Health Anxiety

Childhood and family factors in the development of health anxiety: A systematic review

ABSTRACT Health anxiety (HA) is defined as excessive worries focused on one’s health. The cognitive-behavioral and the interpersonal models assume an association between childhood experiences and the

Cognitive-behavioral therapy for health anxiety disorder: a case report of a Japanese male suffering the after effects of apoplexy and attempted suicide

The present study demonstrated the effectiveness of CBT in reducing health anxiety relating to actual medical conditions in a Japanese male suffering from slight paralysis in his limbs and the left recurrent nerve.

Dimensions of Hypochondriasis

    I. Pilowsky
    Psychology, Medicine
    British Journal of Psychiatry
  • 1967
Factor analysis is a method well-suited to the examination of such a problem and has been used to investigate psychiatric syndromes in order to dissect out the symptom clusters which have been subsumed under a single blanket term.

Features of Hypochondriasis and Illness Worry in the General Population in Germany

The results provide additional support to not only consider “full” DSM-IV hypochondriasis, which is a very rare disorder in the general population, but also to include less restrictive hypochondRIac conditions—associated with a clinically relevant degree of psychological and physical impairment—into clinical and scientific considerations.

Hypochondriacal concerns in a community population

Illness worry was an independent factor contributing to increased levels of distress, health care utilization, and disability, even when medical status was controlled, suggesting that it is an important issue for further research.

Disease phobia and disease conviction are separate dimensions underlying hypochondriasis.

Hypochondriacal patients' beliefs about good health.

Data from the Health Norms Sorting Task are compatible with the hypothesis that patients with DSM-III-R hypochondriasis believe good health to be relatively symptom free and consider more symptoms indicative of sickness.

Health anxiety in Australia: prevalence, comorbidity, disability and service use

Hearth anxiety is non-trivial; it affects a significant proportion of the population and further research and clinical investigation of health anxiety is required.

Clinical features and diagnosis of hypochondriasis. In Hypochondriasis: Modern Perspectives on an Ancient Malady (eds V Starcevic, DR Lipsitt): 21–60

  • 2001

Clinical features and diagnosis of hypochondriasis

    Hypochondriasis : Modern Perspectives on an Ancient Malady
  • 2001

American Psychiatric Association. DSM-5 Development

  • 2012