Cognitive Behaviour Therapy Complemented with Emotion Regulation Training for Patients with Persistent Physical Symptoms: A Randomised Clinical Trial.

Introduction: Persistent medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are a major burden for health care. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) is efficacious for patients with MUS, with small to medium effects. The current study investigates whether therapy outcomes of a CBT for MUS patients can be improved by complementing it with emotion regulation training.

Health care utilization in outpatients with somatoform disorders: Descriptives, interdiagnostic differences, and potential mediating factors.

Objective: Somatoform disorders are characterized by increased health care utilization producing high health costs. The aim of this study was to assess facets of and interdiagnostic differences in health care use in somatoform disorders and to examine health anxiety, symptom-related disability, depression, and phobic anxiety as potential mediating factors of the relationship between somatization and health care use.

Method: An outpatient sample of N=254 patients with somatoform disorders was investigated by analyzing different facets of their health care use over the last 12months.

The Heterogeneity of Illness Behaviors in Patients with Medically Unexplained Physical Symptoms.

Purpose: To investigate the heterogeneity of illness behavior in patients with medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS), we clustered patients in regard to their degree of engaging in different aspects of illness behavior and identified related variables with these behaviors.

Method: A sample of N = 224 patients attending treatment in primary care with a history of MUPS (at least two symptoms) was investigated by analyzing different aspects of illness behavior with the self-reported number of doctor visits during the last 6 months and the Scale for the Assessment of Illness Behavior (SAIB; e.g.