A Diary-Based Modification of Symptom Attributions in Pathological Health Anxiety: Effects on Symptom Report and Cognitive Biases

作者：Kerstner Tobias; Witthoeft Michael; Mier Daniela; Diener Carsten; Rist Fred; Bailer Josef^*

来源：Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2015, 83(3): 578-589.

DOI：10.1037/a0039056

• hypochondriasis
• pathological health anxiety
• attribution modification training
• emotional Stroop task
• recognition task

Objective: To examine whether a 2-week attribution modification training (AMT) changes symptom severity, emotional evaluation of health-threatening stimuli, and cognitive biases in pathological health anxiety. Method: We randomized 85 patients with pathological health anxiety into an electronic diary-based AMT group (AMTG; n = 42) and a control group without AMT (CG; n = 43). Self-report symptom measures, emotional evaluation, attentional bias, and memory bias toward symptom and illness words were assessed with an emotional Stroop task, a recognition task, and an emotional rating task for valence and arousal. Results: After the 2-week period, the AMTG compared with the CG reported lower symptoms of pathological health anxiety, F(1, 82) = 10.94, p < .01, eta(2)(p) = .12, rated symptom, F(1, 82) = 5.56, p = .02, eta(2)(p) = .06, and illness words, F(1, 82) = 4.13, p = .045, eta(2)(p) = .05, as less arousing, and revealed a smaller memory response bias toward symptom words in the recognition task F(1, 82) = 12.32, p < .01, eta(2)(p) = .13. However, no specific AMT effect was observed for the attentional bias. Conclusion: The results support the efficacy of a comparatively short cognitive intervention in pathological health anxiety as a possible add-on intervention to existing treatment approaches to reduce symptom severity, as well as abnormalities in health-related emotional evaluation and memory processes.

• 出版日期2015-6
• 单位上海市精神卫生中心