Contents of It's not All in Your Head by Asmundson and Taylor

elow the ribs (Kellner 1986). Hundreds of years later, in 1968, hypochondriacal
neurosis was first introduced in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders-Second Edition (DSM-II; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1968).
Until the previous decade, health anxiety was regarded as a chronic, self-perpetuating,
and self-validating disorder that was resistant to treatment, and resulted in a poor
prognosis or disability (Avia et al., 1996; Barsky et al., 1988; Barsky et al., 2000).
Recently, there has been argument that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR; APA, 2000) diagnostic
criteria for hypochondriasis are too stringent and result in few correct diagnoses (Creed &
Barsky, 2004; Looper & Kiramayer, 2001). Due to this issue, the DSM-IV-TR criteria are
often not used in hypochondriasis research and an abridged or subclinical definition of
health anxiety is employed instead (Creed, 2006; Creed & Barsky, 2004). This latter
approach is used in the current study. Strict use of the DSM-IV-TR criteria represents a
categorical view of hypochondriasis wherein one either does or does not have the
disorder (Furer & Walker, 2005). In comparison, a dimensional view of health anxiety
that conceptualizes health anxiety symptoms on a normal continuum of severity, allows
for the identification of individuals who may endorse fewer symptoms but nonetheless
have clinically significant levels of distress and disability (Furer & Walker, 2005). New
dimensional diagnoses and diagnostic criteria have been proposed to replace
hypochondriasis in the upcoming fifth edition of the DSM. The Somatic Symptoms
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