Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39792360›Full record

ArticleJournal of clinical psychology2025

Symptom Attributions in Illness Anxiety Disorder.

Monique L Holden, Chien H Gooi, Sophie Antognelli, Amy Joubert, Isaac Sabel, Lauren Stavropoulos, Jill M Newby

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In one paragraph

Article in Journal of clinical psychology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
1citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

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Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

1 citing paper in PubMed.

  1. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Monique L HoldenSchool of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0009-0006-2959-4545
Chien H GooiSchool of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Sophie AntognelliSchool of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Amy JoubertBlack Dog Institute, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Isaac SabelSchool of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Lauren StavropoulosSchool of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.ORCID 0000-0001-7648-7976
Jill M NewbySchool of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

Funding

This study was supported by National Health and Medical Research Council Investigator Grant (2008839).
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesA major characteristic of health anxiety is the tendency to attribute benign bodily sensations to serious illnesses. This has been supported by empirical research in non-clinical samples, and samples of individuals diagnosed with Hypochondriasis. However, no study to date has explored symptom attribution styles of individuals with the DSM-5 diagnosis of Illness Anxiety Disorder.

methodsSixty-one participants, including a clinical Illness Anxiety Disorder (n = 35) and healthy control (n = 26) sample, completed self-report measures of health anxiety and an Attribution Task, whereby they were presented with eight common bodily sensations and asked to generate possible explanations for them.

resultsResults showed that relative to healthy controls, participants with Illness Anxiety Disorder overall were more likely to make more serious, 'catastrophic' somatic attributions to symptoms, and less likely to generate non-threatening normalising explanations. These results also extended to their initial attributions, conceptualised as the 'jumping to conclusions' bias, and as an exploratory index of flexibility, they were also found to make less attributions overall compared to healthy controls.

conclusionsFindings provide support for the cognitive behavioural theory of health anxiety, and highlight the importance of assessing and addressing symptom attributions with clients with illness anxiety disorder.

Indexed as

Anxiety DisordersAdolescentAdultFemaleHumansHypochondriasisMaleMiddle AgedYoung Adultcognitive biascognitive processeshealth anxietyillness anxiety disorderinterpretive biassomatoform disorders

Identifiers

PMID39792360
PMCPMC11890152

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