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Specificity and modifiability of cognitive biases in hypochondriasis
Maria Gropalis1, Gaby Bleichhardt, Wolfgang Hiller
1Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Mainz, Germany. gropali@uni-mainz.de
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
|May 9, 2012
Summary
Cognitive-behavioral therapy effectively reduces attentional bias in individuals with severe health anxiety (hypochondriasis). These biases toward health threat stimuli tend to disappear after psychotherapy.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive psychology
- Clinical psychology
- Psychopathology
Background:
- Cognitive-behavioral models suggest biased attention and memory for health threats maintain severe health anxiety (hypochondriasis).
- Limited research exists on the specificity, stability, and modifiability of these biases through psychotherapy.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate attentional and memory biases for health threat stimuli in hypochondriasis (HYP).
- To examine the specificity and modifiability of these biases after cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
Main Methods:
- Emotional Stroop and recognition tasks were used to assess attention and memory.
- Participants included patients with HYP (n=32), somatoform disorders (SFD; n=27), panic disorder (PD; n=25), and healthy controls (CG; n=31).
- Patients were re-evaluated after 4 months of CBT.
Main Results:
- HYP patients exhibited significant attentional bias towards all health threat word categories.
- Specific attentional bias was only evident in the PD group.
- Recognition performance for health threat words was highest in the HYP group.
- Attentional bias decreased in HYP and SFD patients post-therapy.
Conclusions:
- Hypochondriasis is characterized by attentional bias and elaborate verbal processing of health threats.
- These cognitive irregularities are amenable to change through psychotherapy, suggesting CBT's efficacy.
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