Advances in understanding illness anxiety.
Illness anxiety, also known in its more severe form as hypochondriasis, is a debilitating and chronic condition in which normal bodily symptoms are misinterpreted as signs of serious medical illness. Patients suffer with the fear that they are ill despite reassurance to the contrary and often overuse medical services in the process. This article critically evaluates the recent literature on illness anxiety and related, medically unexplained symptoms, highlighting new and interesting findings in the areas of prevalence, classification/diagnosis, management, and evidence-based treatment and new frontiers in understanding illness anxiety, such as brain imaging, neuroimmunology, and cyberchondria.
Harding
Kelli J
KJ
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center, 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 69, New York, NY 10032, USA. kjh2104@columbia.edu
Skritskaya
Natalia
N
Doherty
Emily
E
Fallon
Brian A
BA
D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D006801:Humans; D055809:Illness Behavior; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D015995:Prevalence; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D009626:Terminology as Topic
D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors