PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS IN HYPOCHONDRIASIS - ATTENTION-INDUCED PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS WITHOUT SENSORY STIMULATION

Attention and expectancy have, in previous research, been demonstrated to influence symptom reporting and these findings can be relevant for understanding hypochondriasis. Earlier attention/expectancy effects o n symptom reporting were studied when subjects were physically stimula ted by the experimenter. If attention or expectancy produced symptom r eporting, which plays a role in hypochondriasis, one expects that atte ntion/expectancy will also produce symptoms in the absence of any deli berate physical stimulation. Eighty healthy volunteers were allocated to one of four groups: attention, expectancy, attention plus expectanc y or a control condition. Compared to the control condition there was much higher symptom reporting in the 3 experimental groups. The experi mental groups did not differ. It is argued that the effects of expecta ncy are obtained via increased attention. The relevance of the finding s for understanding hypochondriasis is discussed.