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Springer Publishing Company, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 4(32), p. 223-240, 2018

DOI: 10.1891/0889-8391.32.4.223

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Feasibility Study of Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety

Journal article published in 2018 by Mathias Skjernov, Per Fink ORCID, Fallon Brian, Flemming Rasmussen, Erik Simonsen
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.
This paper was not found in any repository, but could be made available legally by the author.

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Abstract

Severe health anxiety (SHA) is prevalent, often undiagnosed, persistent untreated, and costly. Meta-analyses have shown effectiveness of mostly individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), whereas Group-CBT has only been studied and shown feasibility in one uncontrolled study of psychiatric outpatients also including self-referrals. We aimed to examine feasibility of Group-CBT for physician-referred psychiatric outpatients with SHA and a future randomized controlled trial (RCT). Group-CBT was conducted in two groups of seven participants. Feasibility was examined about recruitment rate, attrition, organization, and effectiveness. Effectiveness was measured by standardized self-report questionnaires: Whiteley Index-7 (WI-7) and Short Health Anxiety Inventory, and clinician rated remission and functioning from baseline to 3-month follow-up (3FU). Recruitment rate was 1.4 participant per month. Attrition showed dropout of 7%. Organization harbored only one senior therapist. Group-CBT showed effectiveness on all measures except WI-7 at 3FU; this latter explained by participants with concurrent borderline personality disorder. Group-CBT seems feasible for physician-referred psychiatric outpatients with SHA. With modifications, an RCT seems feasible.