Hypochondriasis and Health Anxiety

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.

Chapter 1 ; Introduction and key issues ; Vladan Starcevic and Russell Noyes Jr. ; Chapter 2 ; Clinical manifestations of hypochondriasis and related conditions ; Laura Sirri and Giovanni A. Fava ; Chapter 3 ; Diagnosis and classification of hypochondriasis ; Justine N. Pannekoek and Dan J. Stein ; Chapter 4 ; Relationships with other psychopathology and differential diagnosis of hypochondriasis ; Vladan Starcevic ; Chapter 5 ; Assessment of hypochondriasis and health anxiety ; Susan Longley, Katherine Meyers, Rachel Maxwell and Letizia Boin ; Chapter 6 ; Epidemiological and economic aspects of hypochondriasis and health anxiety ; Karl Looper and Philip Dickinson ; Chapter 7 ; Course and outcome of hypochondriasis and health anxiety ; Russell Noyes Jr. ; Chapter 8 ; Management and physician-patient relationship in hypochondriasis ; Russell Noyes Jr. ; Chapter 9 ; Cognitive and behavioral models and cognitive-behavioral and related therapies for health anxiety and hypochondriasis ; Theo K. Bouman ; Chapter 10 ; Interpersonal psychotherapy for hypochondriasis and related disorders: an attachment-based approach ; Scott Stuart ; Chapter 11 ; Psychodynamic models and therapeutic approaches to hypochondriasis ; Don R. Lipsitt ; Chapter 12 ; Pharmacological treatment and neurobiology of hypochondriasis, illness anxiety and somatic symptoms ; Kelli J. K. Harding and Brian A. Fallon