Illness anxiety disorder and somatic symptom disorder: Similarities and differences in health-anxious individuals 2025 Newby et al

[Andy]

Abstract​

Little is known about the features and characteristics of illness anxiety disorder (IAD) and somatic symptom disorder (SSD), and whether the minimal somatic symptom requirement in IAD is valid and useful. This study compares IAD and SSD, and IAD (involving no or mild somatic symptoms) to a modified IAD diagnosis (modified to include moderate-to-severe somatic symptoms) in health anxious individuals. We recruited health anxious individuals drawn from the community and assessed IAD and SSD. We compared the disorders on demographic and clinical characteristics, health care utilization, and assessed the prevalence of IAD subtypes. The validity of the IAD somatic symptom criterion was examined by comparing current IAD with modified IAD.

Among 118 participants, 28 met criteria for IAD, 47 for SSD, and 38 for modified IAD. Most with IAD fluctuated between seeking and avoiding medical care (71.4%), while 25% were care-seeking and 3.6% were care-avoidant. Demographic information, illness course, mental health comorbidities, and symptom severity did not differ significantly between IAD and SSD. However, individuals with SSD reported significantly more somatic symptoms, chronic health conditions, reduced quality of life, and more health care visits compared to individuals with IAD. Similar findings were observed between IAD-current and IAD-modified. The minimal differences between IAD and SSD, and between IAD-current and IAD-modified call into question the utility of distinguishing health anxiety presentations based on somatic symptom presence and severity. Further research should compare these disorders on illness course and treatment outcomes.

Open access

 

[V.R.T.]

Bullshit Disorder We Made Up and Other Bullshit Disorder We Made Up: similarities and differences in people we arbitrarily slapped these labels on.

 

[rvallee]

illness anxiety disorder (IAD)

Oh, do we have a new baby acronym? Never seen this one before. Ah, a quick search suggests this is a euphemism for hypochondria, because reasons, I guess. Because this is an industry that sees nothing wrong with putting a brick in a box and slapping a fake label on it so that people think they are buying, I don't know, a computer instead.

It's totally wild how political science is, really, easily 100x more serious than this bullshit. And it's mostly a speculative spectator art. It's not even close. Big blunders in political science are things like someone declaring that "history is over", that major historical events are mostly over as humanity has finally matured above our old ways. In psychosomatic medicine the stack of bodies they lay waste to would crush the earth beneath it and would require an oxygen mask to breathe at the top.

Maybe they should just go with astrology. I don't really see the difference anyway.

Further research should compare these disorders on illness course and treatment outcomes.

Or you could just play video games all day instead. Would be a lot better for everyone. I would see it as a win if whoever funds this stuff paid people to just gamble online while drinking beer.