An Examination of the Effects of Health-related Internet Use in Individuals With Pathological Health Anxiety

Hypochondriasis Clinical Trial

Official title:

An Examination of the Effects of Health-related Internet Use in Individuals With Pathological Health Anxiety in a Randomized Controlled Trial

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Not yet recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03024593
• Other study ID #: C1-L
• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• First received: January 5, 2017
• Last updated: January 16, 2017

Study information

• Verified date: January 2017
• Source: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
• Contact: Sandra K Hamann, Dipl.-Psych.
• Phone: (+49) 6131 - 3939 214
• Email: sahamann[@]uni-mainz.de
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

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).

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.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Enrollment: 80
• Est. primary completion date: September 2018
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Pathological health anxiety according to the criteria of Fink et al. (2004)

• Informed consent

• Sufficient German language skills

• Sufficient skills using a computer, a smartphone and the internet

Exclusion Criteria:

• Suicidal tendency

• Clinical diagnosis of alcohol or drug abuse, acute schizophrenia

• Organic brain disorders

• Impairment of intelligence

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Hypochondriasis

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Health- and illness-related internet use

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
n/a

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz	University of Cologne

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Change of health anxiety before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting	self-created item	right before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
Primary	Change of positive and negative affect before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting	Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule - State (PANAS-State)	right before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
Primary	Change of symptom severity before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting	Checklist for symptoms in daily life (CSD)	right before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
Secondary	Change of health anxiety before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction	self-created item	right before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction
Secondary	Change of positive and negative affect before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction	Positive Affect Negative Affect Schedule - State (PANAS-State)	right before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction
Secondary	Change of symptom severity before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction	Checklist for symptoms in daily life (CSD)	right before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction

External Links

•   Link