Long-term consequences of severe health anxiety on sick leave in treated and untreated patients: Analysis alongside a randomised controlled trial.
Health anxiety (HA) is prevalent and costly for health services. However, little is known about the full societal burden of HA. Based on complete register data, we (1) compared weeks on sickness-related benefits (SB) in untreated patients with severe HA (n=126) with a matched population sample (n=12,600); and (2) tested whether Acceptance & Commitment group Therapy (ACT-G) (n=63) reduced weeks on SB during the first year after randomisation compared to a waitlist (n=63). We found that (1) HA patients showed a six-monthly increment of 2 weeks on SB compared with the general population (p<0.0001), and (2) that ACT-G and the waitlist showed no difference in their ability to reduce SB during the first year (p=0.246). We conclude that HA is associated with a considerable societal burden. A possible beneficial effect of psychotherapy on SB needs further investigation.
The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital, Barthsgade 5.1, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. Electronic address: trieil@rm.dk.
Trine
T
Eilenberg
The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital, Barthsgade 5.1, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. Electronic address: Lisbeth.Frostholm@aarhus.rm.dk.
Lisbeth
L
Frostholm
The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital, Barthsgade 5.1, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. Electronic address: Andreas.Schroeder@aarhus.rm.dk.
Andreas
A
Schröder
The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital, Barthsgade 5.1, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. Electronic address: jesoje@rm.dk.
Jens S
JS
Jensen
The Research Clinic for Functional Disorders and Psychosomatics, Aarhus University Hospital, Barthsgade 5.1, 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark. Electronic address: Per.Fink@aarhus.rm.dk.
Per
P
Fink
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006998:Hypochondriasis / Q000191:economics / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014478:Unemployment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult
Health anxiety; Hypochondriasis; Illness anxiety disorder; Randomised controlled trial; Sick leave; Sickness absence