Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Mainz, Germany.
J Consult Clin Psychol. 2013 Jun;81(3):558-65. doi: 10.1037/a0028493. Epub 2012 May 7.
According to cognitive-behavioral models of hypochondriasis (HYP), biased attentional and memory processes related to health threat stimuli are crucial for the development and maintenance of severe health anxiety. Little is known about the specificity, temporal stability, and modifiability of these biases via psychotherapy.
In an emotional Stroop and subsequent recognition task, the authors compared attention and memory processes for health-related words (illnesses, bodily complaints, and panic-related words) in patients with HYP (n = 32), other somatoform disorders (SFD; n = 27), and panic disorder (PD; n = 25). A control group consisted of 31 healthy participants (CG). All patients were reexamined after 4 months of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).
Patients with HYP showed a significant attentional bias toward all 3 target word categories. Evidence for a specific bias was found only for the PD group. General recognition performance for health threat and neutral words was best in the HYP group. After therapy, attentional bias had clearly decreased in the HYP and SFD patients.
Patients with HYP can be characterized by attentional bias and more elaborate verbal processing. These irregularities tend to disappear after psychotherapy.
根据疑病症的认知-行为模型，与健康威胁刺激相关的偏向性注意和记忆过程对于严重健康焦虑的发展和维持至关重要。关于这些偏见通过心理治疗的特异性、时间稳定性和可变性知之甚少。
在情绪 Stroop 和随后的识别任务中，作者比较了 HYP（n=32）、其他躯体形式障碍（SFD；n=27）和惊恐障碍（PD；n=25）患者对与健康相关的单词（疾病、身体抱怨和与惊恐相关的单词）的注意和记忆过程。对照组由 31 名健康参与者（CG）组成。所有患者在接受认知行为治疗（CBT）4 个月后再次接受检查。
HYP 患者对所有 3 个目标词类均表现出明显的注意力偏向。仅在 PD 组发现了特定的偏差证据。HYP 组对健康威胁和中性词的一般识别性能最佳。治疗后，HYP 和 SFD 患者的注意力偏向明显减少。
HYP 患者的特点是注意力偏向和更精细的语言处理。这些不规则性在心理治疗后往往会消失。
