Somatic Symptom Disorder
Conditions
Keywords
somatic symptom disorder, cognitive behavioral therapy, biofeedback therapy, somatic distress, health anxiety
Brief summary
This research program is aimed to develop a integrative psychotherapy (including CBT and biofeedback therapy) and to examine its efficacy on treatment of somatic symptom disorder. The study design is a randomized controlled trial with waiting list control. Scores of Patient Health Questionniare-15 and Health Anxiety Questionnaire are the primary endpoints.
Detailed description
Somatic symptom disorder (SSD) is a psychiatric disorder featured with somatic distress and related psychological phenomena. In the past several years, our research team has investigated several aspects of SSD, including psychopathology, epidemiology, mechanism, and diagnostic biomarkers. But the aspect about treatment on SSD has not been comprehensively explored. In literature, the treatment of SSD can be separated into physical and psychological approaches. The physical approach includes pharmacotherapy and magnetic/electrical neuromodulation. Among several types of psychotherapies, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has the most evidence. Previous studies have disclosed SSD patients to have following cognitive or behavioral features: selective attention on somatic distress; memory bias on the severe health conditions; all-or-none cognition about health; organic attribution style; catastrophizing cognitive pattern about health; high motivation of concerning issues about health; inadequate reassurance-seeking behavior; the assumption about the connection between rest and somatic distress, etc. Biofeedback therapy works by measuring several biological signals related with stress and relaxation (such as heart rate, skin conductance, electromyography, electroencephalography, and finger temperature); feedback of these signals to the subjects can help them more clearly understand the association between their behavior/cognition and relaxation. Biofeedback therapy has been extensively applied in the psychosomatic field. This research program is aimed to develop a integrative psychotherapy (including CBT and biofeedback therapy) and to examine its efficacy. The study design is a randomized controlled trial with waiting list control. Scores of Patient Health Questionniare-15 (PHQ-15) and Health Anxiety Questionnaire (HAQ) are the primary endpoints; the changes of other psychological and biological measurements are viewed as secondary endpoints.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALcognitive-behavioral therapy and biofeedback therapy
Complete eight sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy and biofeedback therapy within three months.
Sponsors
National Taiwan University Hospital
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
20 Years to 70 Years
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* Patient with somatic symptom disorder (confirmed by psychiatrists)
Exclusion criteria
* The age is younger than 20 or older than 70 years * Having psychotic symptoms or cognitive impairment * Having a potentially lethal illness * Cannot read the questionnaires by oneself
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scores of Patient Health Questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15) | Week 12 (comparing with the data in week 0) | Measurement of somatic distress. Score range is 0 to 30; higher score means more severe somatic distress |
| Scores of Health Anxiety Questionnaire (HAQ) | Week 12 (comparing with the data in week 0) | Measurement of health anxiety. Score range is 0 to 63; higher score means more severe health anxiety |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scores of Cognitions About Body and Health Questionnaire (CABAH) | Week 12 (comparing with the data in week 0) | Measurement of cognitions about health. Score range is 0 to 117; higher score means more severe cognitive distortion about health |
| Scores of Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) | Week 12 (comparing with the data in week 0) | Measurement of depression. Score range is 0 to 63; higher score means more severe depression |
| Skin conductance | Week 12 (comparing with the data in week 0) | Measurement of sympathetic activity |
| Heart rate variability | Week 12 (comparing with the data in week 0) | Measurement of parasympathetic activity |
| Scores of Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) | Week 12 (comparing with the data in week 0) | Measurement of anxiety. Score range is 0 to 63; higher score means more severe anxiety |
Countries
Taiwan
Contacts
Primary ContactWei-Lieh Huang, MD, PhD
Outcome results
None listed