Hypochondriacal fears and beliefs in DSM-III melancholia. Changes with amitriptyline

The authors administered the Illness Attitude Scales, which identify hypochondriacal patients, to 20 nonpsychotic inpatients with DSM-III diagnosis of melancholia before and after 4 weeks of treatment with amitriptyline, and to a matched group of normals. Before treatment characteristic hypochondriacal responses occurred in over one-third of melancholics whereas after treatment the number was the same as in normals. The findings are in accord with the clinical observation that melancholia is one of the causes of hypochondriacal fears and beliefs and these tend to remit with recovery from depression.