Clinical trial NCT03024593: An Examination of the Effects of Health-related Internet Use in Individuals With Pathological Health Anxiety
Official title: An Examination of the Effects of Health-related Internet Use in Individuals With Pathological Health Anxiety in a Randomized Controlled Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Hypochondriasis
Keywords: Cyberchondria
health-related internet use
pathological health anxiety
Lead sponsor: Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Cologne
First posted: 2017-01-19
Enrollment: 80
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE

Brief 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).

Detailed 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.

Eligibility criteria: 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

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change of health anxiety before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
timeFrame: right before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
measure: Change of positive and negative affect before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
timeFrame: right before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
measure: Change of symptom severity before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
timeFrame: right before and after 8 minutes of health-related internet searching or waiting
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change of health anxiety before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction
timeFrame: right before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction
measure: Change of positive and negative affect before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction
timeFrame: right before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction
measure: Change of symptom severity before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction
timeFrame: right before and after 10 minutes of anxiety induction
Other outcomes:
Locations:
Study officials:
affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy and Experimental Psychopathology, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
name: Michael Witthoeft, Professor
role: STUDY_CHAIR
References: