Reference
Guide | Reference

66  Illness Anxiety Pattern Prototype

66.1 Summary

  • A pattern of persistent health-related fear with checking, reassurance seeking, or avoidance despite limited objective findings.

66.2 Prototype Features

  • Excessive health worry or fear of serious illness.
  • Reassurance seeking, checking, or avoidance of medical settings.
  • Persistent doubt despite evaluations.

66.3 Threshold Guidance

  • Use when health anxiety is persistent and impairs function or care engagement.

66.4 Expected Domain Profile

  • Compulsivity and Perseveration: moderate.
  • Somatic Distress and Interoception: variable, often elevated.
  • Anxiety and Threat Sensitivity: moderate.

66.5 Time-Course and Trajectory

  • Chronic with flare-ups during stress or symptom changes.

66.6 Differential and Red Flags

  • Actual medical illness explaining symptoms.
  • Trauma-related hypervigilance to bodily cues.
  • Somatic symptom burden without health fear.

66.7 Specifiers (treatment-relevant, non-prescriptive)

  • Course/time pattern (chronic, fluctuating).
  • Contributors (recent illness, health-related loss).
  • Risk modifiers (care avoidance or overutilization).

66.8 Measurement Prompts

  • Health anxiety measure.
  • Checking and reassurance frequency.

66.10 Documentation Snippet (1-2 lines)

  • “Persistent health fear with checking and reassurance; Compulsivity 2, Somatic 2; chronic course.”