Role of reassurance and psychopathology in hypochondriasis

Patients with hypochondriasis are usually considered unresponsive to medical reassurance, so that a possible therapeutic use of reassurance in hypochondriasis is too often overlooked. This paper examines medical reassurance as an important aspect of an interaction between the patient and physician, and presents specific features of the relationship between the hypochondriacal patient and his psychiatrist in the light of the patient's reactions to attempted reassurance. Response to medical reassurance may provide important clues for the more precise diagnostic assessment of patients with hypochondriasis; it is particularly important to identify those patients who have a strong underlying need for acceptance, because adequate and repeated reassurance has a therapeutic value for them.