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Health Anxiety: Hypochondriasis and Related Disorders

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This is to our knowledge the first comprehensive book on health anxiety, a subject rarely described before the 1980s. Gordon JG Asmundson, a psychologist and director of clinical research and development at the Regina Health District, Saskatchewan, Steven Taylor, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of British Columbia Department of Psychiatry and Brian J Cox, a clinical psychologist and associate professor at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Manitoba, have together with 37 colleagues from Canada, United Kingdom and the United States compiled this textbook on hypochondriasis and related conditions.
The book is divided into four parts: Clinical features and theoretical perspectives, assessment and treatment, related conditions, conclusions and future directions with a total of 15 chapters.
Hypochondria as a term dates back more than 2000 years with a definition by Forbes Winslow in 1863 (Obscure diseases of the brain and mind) and today considered as "health related fears and beliefs, based on interpretations, or, perhaps more often, misinterpretations, of bodily signs and symptoms as being indicative of a serious illlness". The disorder occur in about 5% of the general population without gender preference and can begin at any age, but most common onset in early adulthood. Health anxiety can be quite devastating with intense fear and functional disability for the patient, they environment or relatives.
In recent years research has been done, but there is a need for further research in this disorder, effects of treatment and long term outcomes. This book will give you the current status in the field from an international perspective and will be helpful for clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, family physicians and therapists in mental health and general medicine....