Clinical Trials Logo

Clinical Trial Summary

The purpose of the current study is to examine the effects of health-related internet use on affect, health anxiety and symptom severity in individuals with pathological levels of health anxiety. The present randomized controlled study compares an online medical searching condition with a waiting (i.e. non-searching) condition to manipulate the attentional focus. After an induction of health anxiety using the Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task the participants in the searching condition go online and search for subjectively relevant health information (external focus of attention). Individuals in the waiting (i.e. non-searching) condition are requested to do nothing and not to distract themselves (internal focus of attention).


Clinical Trial Description

The internet is a popular method for obtaining information. Increasingly, it is also used to answer medical and health related questions, because compared to other methods (e.g. going to the library or visiting a doctor) it has a number of advantages to offer like low costs, availability, easy accessibility, anonymity, and great diversity of information types and sources. 60 to 80 percent of internet users search online for medical information. In this context the term "cyberchondria" was coined in the media to describe the potentially detrimental effects of this behavior. The first studies in this field using self-report retrospective data showed that individuals with elevated levels of health anxiety seem to make increased use of the internet for this purpose and it seems to maintain health anxiety in the long-term. However, up until today little is known about the consequences of this behavior and the maintaining mechanism.

This randomized controlled experimental study investigates the effects of health-related internet use on affect, symptom severity and health anxiety in individuals with pathological health anxiety. Participants will first undergo a baseline assessment. After that health anxiety is induced using the Autobiographical Emotional Memory Task and participants complete another assessment. Then participants are randomly assigned to either an online medical searching condition (experimental group, EG) or a non-searching condition (control group, CG) to manipulate attentional focus. The EG is requested to search online for health information (external focus of attention), the CG is requested to do nothing and not to distract themselves (internal focus of attention). Then another assessment is completed and the treatment groups are compared regarding the effects on affect, symptom severity and health anxiety. Besides examining these effects a further aim of this study is to identify the underlying mechanism. Two possibilities are supposed: a) An increase of the variables of interest due to health-related information or b) a decrease due to externalization. ;


Study Design


Related Conditions & MeSH terms


NCT number NCT03024593
Study type Interventional
Source Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Contact Sandra K Hamann, Dipl.-Psych.
Phone (+49) 6131 - 3939 214
Email sahamann@uni-mainz.de
Status Not yet recruiting
Phase N/A

See also
  Status Clinical Trial Phase
Completed NCT01673035 - Internet Treatment for Health Anxiety N/A
Completed NCT00368212 - Integrated Treatment Program for Hypochondriasis in Primary Care Settings Phase 3
Completed NCT02404116 - Metacognitive Therapy for Health Anxiety N/A
Completed NCT01158430 - Acceptance and Commitment Group Therapy (ACT) for Patients With Health Anxiety N/A
Completed NCT01119469 - Comparing Cognitive Therapy and Exposure Therapy in Individuals With Hypochondriasis Phase 3
Completed NCT00339079 - Comparing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Antidepressant Medication, and Combined Treatment in Individuals With Hypochondriasis Phase 1/Phase 2
Recruiting NCT04900064 - Evaluation of Primary Care Behavioral Health (PCBH) With the Addition of Self-help CBT - A Randomized Multicenter Trial N/A
Completed NCT00828152 - Internet-delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Health Anxiety Phase 2
Completed NCT00959452 - Follow up of Patients Treated With Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Hypochondria From 1997 to 2007 N/A
Completed NCT02131883 - Outcome of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Patients With Severe Health Anxiety Treated in Group Only. A RCT. N/A
Completed NCT00208247 - KATHY:Cognitive-behavioural Therapy for Hypochondriasis Phase 2
Not yet recruiting NCT05942391 - Brief-intensive CBT Versus Once-weekly CBT in Anxiety-related Disorders N/A
Completed NCT02735434 - Internet-delivered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Patients With Health Anxiety N/A
Completed NCT04921280 - Effectiveness of ICBT for Severe Health Anxiety in Clinical Psychiatry.