Disease Phobia Research Articles

Hypochondriacal Symptoms in Pregnancy

Illness attitudes were evaluated in 26 pregnant women and 26 control subjects matched for sociodemographic variables, by means of a self-rating scale, on three different occasions. In each trimester of pregnancy, women displayed more hypochondriacal fears and beliefs and conviction of disease (disease phobia) than normal controls (p less than 0.001). The findings should alert physicians to ask their pregnant patients whether they are preoccupied with fear of dying, or are concerned that they suffer from an undiagnosed physical illness, or dread a specific illness such as cancer or heart disease. Hypochondriacal fears and beliefs are liable to affect the well-being and health attitudes of pregnant women. If properly recognized, they may effectively be treated.

Hypochondriacal traits in medical inpatients

Hypochondriacal traits were examined in 100 general medical inpatients, and correlates of these traits were examined from four perspectives: (1) emotional distress; (2) affective inhibition; (3) learned social behavior; and (4) symptom misinterpretation. In contrast to previous studies of hypochondriasis in general medical populations, this study examined patients' illness perceptions and presentation in relationship to objective health status as assessed by their treating physicians. Data concerning the illness being treated and associated illness behavior were obtained from patients and their treating physicians. Results suggested that hypochondriacal traits of “disease phobia”, disease conviction, bodily preoccupation, perceptions that one's illness is more severe than the physician's assessment, and illness presentation disproportionate to demonstrable organic disease were quite prevalent. On multiple regression analyses, correlates pertaining to emotional distress appear to be preeminent in the prediction of hypochondriacal traits. However, variables pertaining to learned social behavior also provided further understanding of hypochondriacal traits in medical inpatients beyond that explained by emotional distress.

Reduction in hypochondriasis with treatment of panic disorder.

Hypochondriasis was assessed in 60 patients with panic disorder and agoraphobia using the Illness Behavior Questionnaire. Before treatment, IBQ hypochondriasis scores were similar to those of a group of hypochondriacal psychiatric patients. In patients who improved with treatment, significant reductions in somatic preoccupation, disease phobia, and disease conviction occurred. Hypochondriasis appears to be a prominent feature of panic disorder and agoraphobia, and responds to treatment of the primary conditions. Our findings underscore the importance of providing adequate treatment and thereby avoiding wasteful use of medical resources and alienation of patients from doctors.

Modification of disease phobia using a multifaceted exposure program

By the use of a multifaceted exposure program that lasted 16 weeks, a 27-year-old male was treated for debilitating and irrational fears of having a heart attack. The subject reported reductions in daily anxiety ratings and Valium intake at midtreatment and further reductions at the conclusion of treatment. These changes were maintained at 6- and 12-month followup assessments. The subject's reports were confirmed by his spouse. The results are discussed in terms of the behavioral characteristics and etiology of disease phobia.

Health attitudes and psychological distress in patients attending a lithium clinic.

Health attitudes and psychological distress were investigated in 50 patients attending a lithium clinic and in 50 normal controls. Patients receiving lithium treatment did not report more worry about illness, hypochondriacal attitudes, concern about pain, disease phobia and bodily preoccupations than normals, even though they took fewer precautions about their health and exhibited more self-rated psychological distress. Since most of the psychiatric patients were found to display more fears about illness and death than controls in other studies, this preliminary report may suggest that normal health attitudes are associated with lithium compliance in affective illness.

Origins of disease phobia.

The literature on disease phobia is discussed and a controlled study of this variety of hypochondriasis is presented.There were 30 disease phobic and 30 control subjects, in-patients of a general hospital psychiatric unit in Sydney. Controls were defined as lacking the symptoms ‘disease phobia’, ‘disease conviction’, ‘somatic preoccupation’ and ‘psychogenic pain’. Matching was one-for-one and concerned sex, age and occupational prestige.In brief, the disease phobics were more anxious and self-pitying (current mental state). Before the illness they were more prone to inhibition of anger, bodily concern and low selfesteem (personality variables). As children they were more often weak, sickly and overprotected. Fifteen were youngest siblings versus only six of the controls. They gave a history of much family illness, substantiated by the findings of an excess of deaths among the mothers of disease phobics (life history characteristics). They reported an electrical current as a sensation at relatively low voltages and had low tolerance of pain (experimental measures).A logical insight into the origins of disease phobia is provided by inter-relating the data from these four aspects of the investigations (Fig. 1). This matrix is interpreted in terms of the augmentation-reduction theory of Petrie.

Origins of Disease Phobia

The literature on disease phobia is discussed and a controlled study of this variety of hypochondriasis is presented. There were 30 disease phobic and 30 control subjects, in-patients of a general hospital psychiatric unit in Sydney. Controls were defined as lacking the symptoms ‘disease phobia’, ‘disease conviction’, ‘somatic preoccupation’ and ‘psychogenic pain’. Matching was one-for-one and concerned sex, age and occupational prestige. In brief, the disease phobics were more anxious and self-pitying (current mental state). Before the illness they were more prone to inhibition of anger, bodily concern and low selfesteem (personality variables). As children they were more often weak, sickly and overprotected. Fifteen were youngest siblings versus only six of the controls. They gave a history of much family illness, substantiated by the findings of an excess of deaths among the mothers of disease phobics (life history characteristics). They reported an electrical current as a sensation at relatively low voltages and had low tolerance of pain (experimental measures). A logical insight into the origins of disease phobia is provided by inter-relating the data from these four aspects of the investigations (Fig. 1). This matrix is interpreted in terms of the augmentation-reduction theory of Petrie.

Venereal disease phobia in the 17th century.

The sufferer from venereal disease phobia, unfortunately seen so frequently nowadays (Rogerson, 1951), had, according to Richard Wiseman (1676), his predecessor in the second half of the 17th century. Apparently at that time the fear of syphilitic infection was widespread, but unlike today, there was then some justification for such a fear. Wiseman himself, for example, complained in his treatise on gonorrhoea that the treatment of venereal diseases is the most imployment of our profession, the diseases of these parts being most frequently gotten by the most predominant vice of the age . Wiseman, after describing the Degrees and Symptoms of the lues venerea, says: