Anxiety as a predictor of improvements in somatic symptoms and health anxiety associated with cognitive-behavioral intervention in hypochondriasis
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 03/15/2011
Clinical Article
Nakaoa M et al. – High anxiety at entry into the CBT program predicted a better treatment outcome.
Methods- Total of 182 hypochondriacal participants (139 women, mean = 42.1 years of age) ramdomly assigned to CBT or control group
- Participants completed self-report measures of hypochondriasis that exceeded predetermined threshold on 2 successive occasions
- CBT consisted of 6, weekly 90-min sessions
- Control subjects received usual medical care during same period
- Questionnaires (Whiteley Index, Health Anxiety Inventory, and Somatic Symptom Inventory) used to assess hypochondriacal symptoms,
- Symptom Checklist 90R used to assess anxiety and other psychological symptoms
- Administered before intervention and at 6 and 12 months after completion of intervention
- Scores on 3 measures of hypochondriasis significantly decreased after treatment in CBT compared with control group
- Anxiety and other psychological symptoms also showed significant reductions in CBT group
- High levels of pretreatment anxiety predicted decreases in 3 hypochondriasis scores after controlling for effects of depression, age, sex, educational level, employment status, and marital status
