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

care consumption when they overuse primary care, pathology testing, and secondary care
resources (Conradt, Cavanagh, Franklin, & Rief, 2006). In fact, the economic costs of the
disorder have been estimated at 10% to 20% of the medical budget of the United States
(Hollifield, Paine, Tuttle, & Kellner, 1999). People with health anxiety may assume the
‗sick role‘, avoid daily activities and employment, and repeatedly discuss their health
concerns (Taylor & Asmundson, 2004). They may also avoid all situations or stimuli
related to disease such as hospitals, hospital staff, and sick individuals (Taylor &
Asmundson, 2004). Reassurance seeking, repeated bodily checking, seeking medical
treatments, and avoidance are the key behavioural reactions to health-related fear.
There are notable similarities between health anxiety, panic disorder, and
obsessive disorders (Salkovskis, Warwick, & Clark, 1993; Warwick & Salkovskis, 1990;
Wattar et al., 2005). Panic disorder tends to involve the fear that a catastrophic health
event is occurring when bodily sensations are experienced; health anxiety involves the
fear that a serious medical disease is gradually developing when bodily sensations are
experienced or when illness information is encountered (Wattar et al., 2005). Obsessive
compulsive disorder (OCD) is another disorder characterized by catastrophic beliefs.
Individuals with OCD believe they can prevent catastrophic events from happening if
they perform physical or mental rituals (Wattar et al., 2005), which is not the case for
health anxiety. Despite the similarities, the presence of disease phobia (as opposed to
bodily preoccupation and disease conviction) is the factor that can usually discriminate
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