Body perception in non-delusional hypochondriasis

Non-delusional hypochondriasis (NH) is an actual field of research in psychology and psychiatry. According to existing data, body perception plays a significant role in origin of NH. Also the theoretical review has revealed the lack of psychological studies, capable to describe personal features of body perception among people with NH. In this connection, we researched the body perception in NH. It was hypothesized that body perception is different in the group of patients with NH. The aim of the study was to find out and to describe the personal features of body perception of healthy people and patients with NH. The sample with NH was divided into two groups depending on nosological diagnosis. The first group (n=7) consisted of patients with diagnosis «Hypochondriasis» (HD) (F 45.2, ICD-10), the second group (n=23) included patients with «Schizotypal personality disorder» (SPD) (F 21.8, ICD-10). People from the control group haven't had any somatic complaints and have never visited psychiatrist. The choice of research methods was determined by the possibility of estimate the cognitive schema of body and the emotional component of body perception. The structure of cognitive schema was measured by Cognition about Body and Health Questionnaire (CABAh, W. Rief, 1998), Health Anxiety Questionnaire (HAQ, M. Lucock, 1996), Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI, P. Salkovskis, 2002), «Segments» (Salamova D.K., Dvoryanchikov N.V., Enikolopov S.N., 2003). The emotional component of body perception was measured by using the Color Test (Etkind A.M., 1987). Also the personality characteristics were estimated by using NEO Five-Factory Inventory (McCrae R.R., Costa, P.T., 1987), State-trait anxiety inventory (Spielberger C.D., 1970), Life Style Index (Plutchik R., Kellerman H., 1979). The data was processed with SPSS 19. The analysis allowed to describe the special features for all three groups. The control group has showed the low level of health anxiety. Cognitive schema of body had a defined structure, the body was emotionally accepted. Patients with HD and SPD had the higher level of health anxiety and high scores by the factors «Body Vigilance», «Intolerance to bodily complaints», «Health habits». According to cognitive-behavioral approach the hypochon-driasis is triggered by vigilance to bodily sensations. In combination with intolerance to bodily complaints it could increase the level of health anxiety. Patients with HD had a defined structure of cognitive body schema, though the emotional component was unstable. In spite of emotional acceptance of body patients was dissatisfied with bodily sensations. Patients with SPD had an undefined cognitive body representation, they perceived the body as an inconvenient instrument and emotionally repudiated the body. In connection with it any bodily sensations could cause state anxiety, health anxiety and fear of death. The results could become the basis for further researchers of body perception as one of the psychological factors in origin of NH.

Keywords

Authors

References