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Cognitive therapy has lasting effect on hypochondriacs
Even just a few hours with cognitive behavioural therapy has very good effect on persons with hypochondria - 10 years after treatment.
People that suffer from health anxiety, also known as hypochondriacs, use very much of their time and energy on checking whether or not they have a serious disease. This often has negative effects on their social life, work, and family life, to the extent that their quality of life is strongly reduced.
Researchers at the University of Bergen have found that only 16 hours of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can have a very positive effect on hypochondriacs - as long as 10 years after treatment.
“This is the first study that follows hypochondriacs for such a long period. It shows that CBT has good effects both one year and 10 years after therapy,” says psychiatrist Kari-Elise Veddegjærde. She is a PhD-candidate at the Department of Clinical Science at the University of Bergen (UiB).
The study was recently published in The British Journal of Psychiatry.
10 year follow-up
In the study, Veddegjærde followed 50 patients that had struggled with health anxiety for a long time.
Each of them received 16 hours of CBT from the well-known Norwegian therapist, Professor Ingvard Wilhelmsen at the University of Bergen. The patients answered questionnaires about their quality of life before, during and after the treatment. Other therapies and their drug use was taken into account.
“We know that CBT is an effective treatment against health anxiety, but we did not know how long the effect would last. This study shows that the treatment maintains its positive effect over a long period of time,” Veddegjærde says.
Regular GPs should know and offer CBT
Veddegjærde hopes that the results from the study will lead to more psychologists and psychiatrist offering more CBT in the future.
From her own practice, she has experienced that only a couple of hours is enough for some patients.
“Since the study shows that only a few hours with CBT has positive effects until 10 years after treatment, I hope that more regular GPs and specialists will start offering this type of treatment,” says Kari-Elise Veddegjærde.
Reference:
Kari-Elise Frøystad Veddegjærde et.al: Long-term effect of cognitive–behavioural therapy in patients with Hypochondriacal Disorder, BJPsych Open, 2020. doi: 10.1192/bjo.2020.22
