Publications by authors named "Tobias Kerstner"
Background: An attentional bias to health-threat stimuli is assumed to represent the primary pathogenetic factor for the development and maintenance of pathological health anxiety (PHA; formerly termed "hypochondriasis"). However, little is known about the neural basis of this attentional bias in individuals with PHA.
Methods: A group of patients with PHA, a group of depressed patients and a healthy control group completed an emotional Stroop task with health-threat (body symptom and illness) words and neutral control words while undergoing functional MRI.
The negative interpretation of body sensations (e.g., as sign of a severe illness) is a crucial cognitive process in pathological health anxiety (HA).
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- The DSM-5 introduced two new diagnoses for what was previously called hypochondriasis: somatic symptom disorder (SSD) and illness anxiety disorder (IAD), differentiated by the presence of physical symptoms in SSD.
- A study analyzed health-anxious, depressed, and healthy individuals, finding that most former hypochondriasis patients fit the criteria for SSD rather than IAD.
- The study suggested that despite differences in impairment and comorbid conditions, SSD and IAD did not significantly differ in health anxiety levels and related characteristics, raising doubts about the validity of separating these diagnoses.
Objective: To examine whether a 2-week attribution modification training (AMT) changes symptom severity, emotional evaluation of health-threatening stimuli, and cognitive biases in pathological health anxiety.
Method: We randomized 85 patients with pathological health anxiety into an electronic diary-based AMT group (AMTG; n = 42) and a control group without AMT (CG; n = 43). Self-report symptom measures, emotional evaluation, attentional bias, and memory bias toward symptom and illness words were assessed with an emotional Stroop task, a recognition task, and an emotional rating task for valence and arousal.