Perceptual and Memory Biases for Health-related Information in Hypochondriacal Individuals

Abstract

Problematic health concerns characteristic of hypochondriasis may be better understood with the aid of cognitive, information processing theories. We investigated whether hypochondriacal individuals show perceptual: and explicit memory biases favoring health-related information. A clinical sample of hypochondriacs (n=18) and healthy controls (n=22), and a sample of hypochondriacal (n=22) and nonhypochondriacal (n=67) patients referred for Holter monitoring. completed a computerized test of perceiving difficult-to-read words and then an encoding task followed by recall of those words. Contrary to our prediction:, hypochondriacal individuals in the clinical sample did not perceive more health-related words than words not related to health. Hypochondriacal individuals in the Holter-monitoring sample showed: an unexpected bias against reporting health-related words;. Social class may account for some of the group differences in this sample. Hypochondriacal individuals in both samples showed better memory for health-related than nonhealth words. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.