Hypochondriasis and Health Anxiety A Guide for Clinicians

In the recently updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the diagnostic concept of hypochondriasis was eliminated and replaced by somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder. Hypochondriasis and Health Anxiety: A Guide for Clinicians, edited by Vladan Starcevic and Russell Noyes and written by prominent clinicians and researchers in the field, addresses current issues in recognizing, understanding, and treating hypochondriasis. Using a pragmatic approach, it offers a wealth of clinically useful information. The book also provides a critical review of the underlying conceptual and treatment issues, addressing varying perspectives and synthesizing the current research.

Specific topics the text covers include: clinical manifestations, diagnostic and conceptual issues, classification, relationships with other disorders, assessment, epidemiology, economic aspects, course, outcome and treatment. Additionally, the book discusses patient-physician relationship in the context of hypochondriasis and health anxiety and presents cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal and psychodynamic models and treatments. The authors also address the neurobiological underpinnings of hypochondriasis and health anxiety and pharmacological treatment approaches.

Based on the extensive clinical experience of its authors, there are numerous case illustrations and practical examples of how to assess, understand and manage individuals presenting with disease preoccupations, health anxiety and/or beliefs that they are seriously ill. It approaches its subject from various perspectives and is a work of integration and critical thinking about an area often shrouded in controversy.

Vladan Starcevic is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Sydney, Sydney Medical School - Nepean. He is also a Consultant Psychiatrist and Head of the Academic Department of Psychiatry at Nepean Hospital in Sydney, Australia. His past academic titles include Conjoint Professor at the University of Newcastle and Associate Professor at the University of Belgrade. His main professional and research interests include anxiety disorders, hypochondriasis and psychiatric diagnosis and classification. He has authored or co-authored over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals and book chapters. He also co-edited a book on hypochondriasis in 2001 and is the author or co-editor of four other books on various aspects of anxiety disorders.
Russell Noyes Jr. is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine, Iowa City, Iowa. Since 1965, he has been a member of the faculty at the University of Iowa where his research has centered on depersonalization, panic disorder and hypochondriasis, three related disturbances. This work led to 300 scientific publications. His teaching focused on the psychiatric consultation service. He was active in the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine and in 1990 served as president of that organization. During that time he took the lead in initial efforts to obtain subspecialty recognition for the field of psychosomatic medicine. He received the Thomas Hackett Memorial Award (for career achievement) from the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine.