title: Implicit affective evaluation bias in hypochondriasis: findings from the Affect Misattribution Procedure.
abstract: Cognitive theories of hypochondriasis (HYP) suggest that catastrophic misinterpretations of benign body sensations are a core feature for the maintenance of the disorder. There is tentative support from an analog sample that the interpretation of illness-related information also involves an implicit affective component. This is the first study to examine this negative affective evaluation bias implicitly in patients with HYP. An adapted version of the Affect Misattribution Procedure (AMP) with illness, symptom and neutral primes was used in 80 patients with HYP, and compared to 83 patients with an anxiety disorder (AD), as well as 90 healthy controls (CG). The HYP group showed significantly more negative affective reactions in illness prime trials, compared to both control groups, as well as more negative implicit evaluations on symptom prime trials, compared to the CG. Significant inverse relationships were observed only between the implicit evaluations of illness words and health anxiety questionnaires. Thus, an implicit negative affective evaluation bias of serious illnesses rather than symptoms is a unique feature of HYP.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Julia M B
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Neng
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heimlich
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Witthöft
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Goethe-University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Electronic address: weck@psych.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Weck
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006998:Hypochondriasis / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D010556:Personality Tests; D012677:Sensation
keywords: Affect Misattribution Procedure; Cognitive bias; Health anxiety; Hypochondriasis; Implicit measure