Treatment of Patients With Health Anxiety. A Randomized Controlled Trial of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Group Treatment Compared to a Waiting List

Health anxiety disorder or Hypochondriasis is a prevalent somatoform disorder, but a rarely used diagnosis in clinical practice despite studies having reported prevalence between 0.8-9.5% in primary care (Fink et al, 2004). As a consequence, the disorder is rarely treated.

The lack of valid, reliable, and generally accepted diagnostic criteria has been a major obstacle in clinical practice and Hypochondriasis studies, which causes problems particularly in distinguishing Hypochondriasis patients from other patients presenting with medically unexplained symptoms or functional symptoms.

In 2004, the investigators introduced a radically revised definition of Hypochondriasis. Hypochondriasis is viewed as a stigmatizing label, and the designation health anxiety has been suggested as replacement. This new diagnosis is empirically established. The essential feature of health anxiety is that the patients present with cognitive symptoms such as unfounded worrying about their health. In contrast to other somatoform disorders, the patients are not necessarily plagued by physical symptoms.

The new diagnostic criteria include the symptom 'obsessive rumination about illness' plus at least one of the symptoms 'worry or preoccupation with fears of harboring an illness or with bodily functions', 'suggestibility or autosuggestibility', 'an unrealistic fear of being infected or contaminated', 'an excessive fascination with medical information', or 'fear of taking prescribed medication'.

In the current study, health anxiety is diagnosed by use of newly introduced empirically established positive criteria for Health anxiety (Fink et al, 2004).