The Clinician's Guide to Treating Health Anxiety: Diagnosis, Mechanisms, and Effective Treatment provides mental health professionals with methods to better identify patients with health anxiety, the basic skills to manage it, and ways to successfully adapt cognitive behavioral therapy to treat it. The book features structured diagnostic instruments that can be used for assessment, while also underscoring the importance of conducting a comprehensive functional analysis of the patient’s problems. Sections cover refinements in assessment and treatment methods and synthesize existing literature on etiology and maintenance mechanisms. Users will find an in-depth look at who develops health anxiety, what the behavioral and cognitive mechanisms that contribute to it are, why it persists in patients, and how it can be treated. Provides clinicians with tools to better identify, manage and treat health anxiety Outlines a step-by-step behavioral treatment program Looks at the similarities and differences between health anxiety and other anxiety disorders Reviews self-report instruments that can be used to measure health anxiety on a dimensional scale Includes information about recent diagnostic changes according to DSM-5

Contemporary culture includes a high awareness of personal and global health hazards. Many people may feel some anxiety in this regard, but some develop an unbearable sense of dread that prevents them from functioning. Treating Health Anxiety gives prescribing and non-prescribing clinicians, as well as the counselors and social workers who encounter the problem, the tools to reduce both the fears and the medical costs that so often accompany them.

In the recently updated Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), the diagnostic concept of hypochondriasis was eliminated and replaced by somatic symptom disorder and illness anxiety disorder. Hypochondriasis and Health Anxiety: A Guide for Clinicians, edited by Vladan Starcevic and Russell Noyes and written by prominent clinicians and researchers in the field, addresses current issues in recognizing, understanding, and treating hypochondriasis. Using a pragmatic approach, it offers a wealth of clinically useful information. The book also provides a critical review of the underlying conceptual and treatment issues, addressing varying perspectives and synthesizing the current research. Specific topics the text covers include: clinical manifestations, diagnostic and conceptual issues, classification, relationships with other disorders, assessment, epidemiology, economic aspects, course, outcome and treatment. Additionally, the book discusses patient-physician relationship in the context of hypochondriasis and health anxiety and presents cognitive, behavioral, interpersonal and psychodynamic models and treatments. The authors also address the neurobiological underpinnings of hypochondriasis and health anxiety and pharmacological treatment approaches. Based on the extensive clinical experience of its authors, there are numerous case illustrations and practical examples of how to assess, understand and manage individuals presenting with disease preoccupations, health anxiety and/or beliefs that they are seriously ill. It approaches its subject from various perspectives and is a work of integration and critical thinking about an area often shrouded in controversy.

As a mental health professional, it can be difficult to help anxious clients face their fears and anxieties. Exposure therapy is widely appreciated as one of the most effective therapeutic treatments for anxiety spectrum disorders; however, it is often underutilized due to problems that present themselves during treatment, such as client unwillingness or hesitancy, or a lack of understanding on the professional’s part regarding targeted applications. The Clinician's Guide to Exposure Therapies for Anxiety Spectrum Disorders offers guidance in creating specific exposure exercises for clients’ individual fears and phobias, as well as tools to help you and your clients overcome common roadblocks that arise during exposure therapy. In addition, this clinician’s guide presents detailed solutions and specific exposure strategies for the most common fears and phobias clients experience. You will learn to implement exposure therapy and integrate it with other evidence-based practices, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The book also includes reproducible worksheets you can use to help clients develop hierarchies of exposure and information about using prolonged exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. If you are looking for a powerful resource for treating anxiety disorders, this is it.

Treatment of Anxiety Disorders provides clinicians with an authoritative review of the epidemiology, etiology, and evaluation of anxiety disorders. Its unique and most useful feature is that each section contains a "Patient Treatment Manual" for conducting a comprehensive and effective cognitive behavioral program with each patient being treated for common anxiety disorders.

The Clinician's Guide to Anxiety Sensitivity Treatment and Assessment provides evidence-based strategies for clinicians looking to treat, assess and better understand anxiety sensitivity in their patients. The book delivers detailed guidance on the theoretical background and empirical support for anxiety sensitivity treatment methods, assessment strategies, and how clinicians can best prepare for sessions with their clients. Bolstered by case studies throughout, it highlights anxiety sensitivity as a transdiagnostic risk factor while also looking at the importance of lower-order sensitivity factors (physical, social, cognitive) in treatment planning, implementation and evaluation.

Grounded in current theory and treatment research, this highly practical book presents a comprehensive framework for assessing and treating health anxiety, including full-blown and milder (subclinical) forms of hypochondriasis. The current state of knowledge about these prevalent and costly problems is reviewed, and assessment methods and empirically supported treatments described. Clear, step-by-step recommendations are provided for engaging patients or clients, implementing carefully planned cognitive and behavioral interventions, and troubleshooting potential pitfalls. Important advances in pharmacotherapy for persons with health anxiety disorders are also discussed. Enhancing the utility of this clinician- and student-friendly resource are numerous case examples and sample dialogues, quick-reference tables and boxed material, and over 20 reproducible handouts and assessment forms.