Avoidance in hypochondriasis
Section snippets
Participants
One hundred ninety-five individuals with primary hypochondriasis participated in a dual-site randomized double-blind intervention trial of two therapies for hypochondriasis, (cognitive behavior therapy and pharmacotherapy), conducted from 2006 to 2011 (for more detailed information, see Skritskaya et al., [8]). The sample was 56.4% female, with mean age of 39.7 years (SD = 14.3 [8]). For the purposes of this study, we examined baseline data prior to treatment, with all participants meeting DSM-IV
Descriptive statistics
Participants were rated by Independent Evaluator clinicians—blinded to treatment wing—to have “marked” illness concerns on the HIC Severity Scale in the past two weeks [8]. Participants had average WI scores of 49.39 (SD = 9.58, Range = 0–69), average STAI scores of 51.57 (SD = 13.62), and mild depression (BDI-II M = 16.67, SD = 11.34, Range = 0–50). Participants reported a mean score of 43.68 on the Q-LES-Q-SF (SD = 10.13, Range = 0–50), lower than reported in participants with GAD [39]. Functional impairment
Discussion
Maladaptive avoidance in hypochondriasis has not been well-studied. We sought to address this gap in the literature, given that the DSM-5 includes subtypes demarcated by care-seeking versus care-avoidant behaviors and new criteria for IAD. Our hypotheses that comparison of latent trait, latent class, and factor mixture model fit to H-YBOCS-M avoidance items would reveal a two-class model, and that these two classes would be distinguished as avoidant and non-avoidant of illness stimuli, were
Acknowledgments
Supported in part by an NIH grant to Dr. Fallon (RO1MH071456) and Dr. Barsky (RO1MH071456).
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