Estimated reading time: 3-4 minutes
NEW YORK — A large Swedish study reveals discrepancies regarding people diagnosed with excessive fear of serious illness. They tend to die sooner than people who are not hypervigilant about health concerns.
Hypochondriasis, now called illness anxiety disorder, is a rare condition with symptoms that go beyond your average health concerns. People with this disorder are unable to get rid of their fears despite routine physical and laboratory tests. Some people change doctors many times. Some people may avoid medical care.
“Many of us are mildly hypochondriacs, but we suffer from worry, suffering, and constant ruminating about whether we have a serious illness,” said Jonathan E. Alpert, M.D., of Montefiore Medical Center. There are people who are at the opposite end of the spectrum, living in spite of the situation.” In New York.
People with the disorder suffer, and “it's important that we take this disorder seriously and treat it,” said Alpert, who was not involved in the new study. Treatment may include cognitive behavioral therapy, relaxation techniques, education, and possibly antidepressants.
Researchers found that people with this diagnosis were at increased risk of death from both natural and unnatural causes, especially suicide. Chronic stress and its effects on the body may explain some of the difference, the authors write.
the studyDavid Mataikus-Kols of Sweden's Karolinska Institutet, who led the study, said the paper, published Wednesday in JAMA Psychiatry, addressed “a clear gap in the literature.” “We were lucky,” he said, because Sweden's disease classification system had a separate code for hypochondriasis, allowing data analysis on thousands of people over a 24-year period from 1997 to 2020. .
Older studies suggested that the risk of suicide may be low for people with the disease, but “our hunch, based on clinical experience, was that this was probably wrong,” Mataix-Kols said. said. In this study, people with the diagnosis had a four times higher risk of dying by suicide.
They studied 4,100 people diagnosed with hypochondria and matched them with 41,000 people of similar age, gender, and location. They used a measure called person-years, which represents the number of people and the length of follow-up.
Overall mortality was higher in hypochondriacs: 8.5 versus 5.5 per 1,000 person-years. People with the disease died younger than others, with an average age of 70 versus 75. The risk of death from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases was higher. Cancer was the exception. The risk of death was about the same.
Dr. Alpert, who heads the American Psychiatric Association's research council, said it's important to refer patients with extreme anxiety to a mental health professional. Patients may feel condemned for imagining their symptoms and may feel offended.
“It takes a lot of respect and great care to tell patients that this is a symptom in itself and that there's a name for it,” Alpert said. “And fortunately, there are good treatments.”
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Education Media Group. The Associated Press is solely responsible for all content.
