Nov 18 2008
New Program May Help People With Health Anxiety, Study
Research shows that 25% or one in every four individuals who has a chronic medical condition, such as multiple sclerosis, diabetes, back pain, asthma, or heart disease suffers from health anxiety. Individuals with health anxiety seek reassurance from medical professionals and/or spend a lot of time on the Internet looking for information about their conditions.
While this behavior is certainly normal to a certain degree, health anxiety is constituted by becoming very worried or obsessed over one’s health problem. If it is untreated, health anxiety can lead to hypochondriasis, a psychological condition, which I plan to discuss in more detail in my next post.
Heather Hadjistavropoulos, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Regina, located in Saskatchewan, Canada recently presented the preliminary results of a study she did regarding a four-step program for individuals suffering with health anxiety at the annual conference of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
Hadjistavropoulos is currently doing a study involving 60 participants with chronic health conditions who also suffer from health anxiety. While some of the participants underwent a four-step program for learning to cope with their anxiety, other participants received no treatment.
Her program includes the following four steps:
1. Setting appropriate limits on seeking reassurance: Individuals with health anxiety can work with a therapist and their doctors to determine what amount of time is reasonable to search the Internet for information on their condition as well as to how many and how often medical follow-up appointments are needed. Additionally, mental health providers need to work with individuals with health anxiety in teaching them how to recognize when they are obsessing over their medical conditions.
For the study, Hadjistavropoulos had participants work with mental health and medical professionals to do just that - teaching them to recognize when their anxiety is negatively impacting their lives as well as setting reasonable limits for information seeking and follow-up appointments.
2. Building confidence in the medical system: Hadjistavropoulos remarks that oftentimes, individuals suffering from health anxiety do not have confidence in their doctors, either because of a negative experience or because they simply do not trust them. In her study, Hadjistavropoulos worked with participants in her program in developing better relationships with their doctors in order to foster confidence in them.
3. Changing the way they focus on symptoms: Individuals with health anxiety tend to become focused on a symptom, Hadjistavropoulos asserts. In her study, she worked with participants to educate them on how focusing on a symptom can actually make that symptom become worse.
4. Challenging their beliefs about their ability to cope: In the study, Hadjistavropoulos reminded participants that 75% of individuals who suffer from chronic health conditions do not become overly anxious about them. She asserted that this tends to open up a discussion and allows her to work with participants on finding ways that they can cope with their medical problems as well.
If you suffer from health anxiety, you can work with a mental health professional on finding effective coping mechanisms for dealing with your chronic medical condition too.
While Hadjistavropoulos’ study is not yet complete, she asserts that at initial follow-up, immediately after the program was finished, she gave participants a questionnaire regarding their health anxiety. She reported that participants’ anxiety was reduced from baseline at the annual conference. However, she plans to follow up with participants again at three months.
This program may be effective for helping individuals who suffer with both chronic medical conditions and health anxiety.
Please tell me what you think in the comments section below!
Source:
Psych Central: Calming Health Anxiety
