Hypochondriasis, Illness Anxiety Disorder, Health Anxiety
Treatment of Hypochondria
Until recently, hypochondria—the conviction some people have that they are suffering a serious undiagnosed illness— was considered a disorder beyond the reach of treatment. But in the past decade or so, the components of the condition have come into clearer focus— belief in the presence of an undiagnosed disease, health-related anxiety, bodily preoccupation. The misperception of benign body sensations and the distorted thinking that magnifies and misattributes them have led researchers and clinicians to see the value of psychological treatments.
Nevertheless, physicians report that hypochondria remains a difficult disorder to treat, in part because it is difficult to orient patients to the right treatment. Patients with illness anxiety spend a great deal of time in the medical system. They overutilize medical services and remain anxious even when diagnostic procedures turn up no evidence of illness. They literally don’t take no for an answer; it does not give them reassurance. Many resist seeing their problem as inherently psychological, because they believe it means their suffering is not “real.”
The challenge for any treatment of hypochondria is to educate patients about the nature of their disorder and what triggers it. Beyond that, the treatment of choice for hypochondria, or Illness (health) Anxiety Disorder, is psychotherapy , because it specifically targets the perceptual and cognitive mechanism thought to underlie the disorder—and in particular, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) . There is a mountain of evidence documenting the effectiveness of CBT for generalized anxiety and other anxiety disorders. And as with other anxiety disorders, the antidepressant drug fluoxetine (Prozac) is sometimes al so used to treat health anxiety.
Research has shown that CBT successfully teaches hypochondriacs to identify what triggers their behavior and gives them coping skills to help them manage it. In one well-regarded, randomized, and controlled study, patients assigned to CBT received treatment in six 90-minute sessions at weekly intervals. At both 6-month and 12-month follow-up, CBT patients logged significant reductions in hypochondriacal thought frequency, health anxiety, and amplification of body sensations. They also were better able to participate in the normal activities of daily living.
Explore More About Hypochondria
For a comprehensive understanding of hypochondria, read our complete guide: