Thought Characteristics in Patients With Severe Health Anxiety: A Comparison With Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Healthy Controls

• Published in: Psychology of consciousness (Washington, D.C.) Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 76 - 87
• Main Authors: Gehrt, Tine B., Frostholm, Lisbeth, Obermann, Marie-Louise, Berntsen, Dorthe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Educational Publishing Foundation 01-03-2023
• Subjects: Autobiographical Memory; Client Characteristics; Cognitions; Female; Health Attitudes; Human; Intolerance of Uncertainty; Male; Memory; Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Outpatient; Rumination (Cognitive Process); Thought Suppression; severe health anxiety; intolerance of uncertainty; rumination; obsessive-compulsive disorder; involuntary memory
• ISSN: 2326-5523; 2326-5531
• DOI: 10.1037/cns0000325

Previous studies on health anxiety have primarily focused on general aspects of thought characteristics proposed to be central to the disorder, whereas the importance of disorder-specific thought content is often stressed in the literature. The present study examines general as well as disorder-specific aspects of several thought characteristics in 32 patients with severe health anxiety, a clinical control group of 33 patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, and 32 healthy control participants. Both patient groups reported more general rumination, intolerance of uncertainty, thought suppression, and health-related involuntary autobiographical memories and future thoughts than the healthy control participants. Patients with severe health anxiety reported more health-related rumination and health-related intolerance of uncertainty than general rumination and general intolerance of uncertainty, whereas the other groups showed the opposite pattern. The findings lend support to the view that health-related rumination and health-related intolerance of uncertainty play a central role in the disorder. The findings highlight the importance of considering disorder-specific content when examining thought characteristics in clinical disorders.