ATTRIBUTIONS ABOUT COMMON BODILY SENSATIONS - THEIR ASSOCIATIONS WITHHYPOCHONDRIASIS AND ANXIETY

Background. Causal attributions about bodily sensations may determine help-seeking and influence patients' demands for medical treatment. Th e present study aimed to differentiate the causal attributions associa ted with health-related and non-health-related anxiety. Methods. Anxio us hypochondriacal, generally anxious, and non-anxious general practic e attenders were compared on their propensity to give somatic, psychol ogical or normalizing attributions for common bodily sensations, measu red by number of each type of attribution in a given time period and t he frequency of first response of each type. Results. The groups diffe red in all three types of attributions. Giving more psychological and fewer normalizing attributions was related to general anxiety whereas giving more somatic attributions was related specifically to hypochond riasis. Conclusions. Anxiety and hypochondriasis can be distinguished in terms of their associated patterns of attributions for bodily sensa tions, reinforcing the importance of attributional processes and inter ventions which use reattributional training.