CHICAGO — Health anxiety is a prominent feature of all types of anxiety disorders, Jonathan S. Abramowitz, Ph.D., reported at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.
“Health concerns are present across the anxiety disorders,” said Dr. Abramowitz, professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and director of the obsessive-compulsive disorder/anxiety disorder treatment and research program there.
In a study of 157 adults who were patients at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., where Dr. Abramowitz previously worked, 49 had panic disorder, 32 had social phobia, 21 had generalized anxiety disorder, 18 had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), 21 had hypochondriasis, and 16 had specific phobias. The researchers made these diagnoses using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR or the mini international neuropsychiatric interview. More than half the participants (58%) were women, 88% were white, 52% had at least a 2-year college degree, and 55% were married.
The results showed a positive relationship between health anxiety and most other anxiety disorders. Using self-report measures to assess individual anxiety, the researchers found a significant relationship between the Health Anxiety Inventory-Short Version (SHAI) and the Body Vigilance Scale, the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised Respiratory, Cardiologic, and Cognitive subscales, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory.
They found no significant relationship between the SHAI and the Anxiety Sensitivity Index-Revised Social subscale, the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised, and the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale. When the results were analyzed by diagnostic group, patients with panic disorder and OCD had the highest SHAI scores.
Dr. Abramowitz said the results indicated several new findings about health anxiety and overall anxiety. “Patients with panic disorder and OCD have the strongest beliefs about the possibility of becoming ill,” he stated.
The findings underscore the importance of assessing for health-focused anxiety when treating people with anxiety, according to Dr. Abramowitz. But the study has limits, he readily admits. It relies entirely on self-reported measures of anxiety, which could introduce bias into the results.