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Hypochondriasis and Health Anxiety

Course Description

An essential resource for anyone providing services for individuals with somatoform or anxiety disorders Cognitive-behavioral therapy is now the treatment of choice for individuals with health anxiety and related problems. The latest research shows that it results in reductions in health-related worries, reassurance-seeking behavior, and phobic avoidance, as well as increases in life satisfaction and everyday functioning. This compact, easy to understand book by experts Jonathan S. Abramowitz and Autumn E. Braddock opens with an overview of the diagnostic issues and assessment of health anxiety, and delineates a research-based conceptual framework for understanding the development, maintenance, and treatment of this problem. The focus of the book is a highly practical guide to implementing treatment, packed with helpful clinical pearls, therapist-patient dialogues, illustrative case vignettes, and sample forms and handouts. Readers are equipped with skills for engaging reluctant patients in treatment and tailoring educational, cognitive, and behavioral techniques for health-related anxiety. The book, which also addresses common obstacles in treatment, represents an essential resource for anyone providing services for individuals with somatoform or anxiety disorders.

Target Audience: Social workers, counselor, and other mental health professionals.

Course Content Level: Advanced

Number of CE Hours: 4

Type of CE hours: Clinical

Delivery format: Reading based asynchronous distance learning.

Course completion requirements:
How to Obtain Continuing Education Credit
Please follow the steps below to obtain the necessary contact hours of home study continuing
education credit:

1. Read course objectives.
2. Study the course text:

3. The questions for the final examination are attached here. Answer these questions by marking
your Scantron card:
Write your name on every Scantron card in the space provided. Also write the exam title
in the space marked “Subject”.
True/false examination Mark the Scantron card as follows: Use A for true answers, B for
false answers. Disregard C, D and E.
Multiple-choice questions Choose the letter of the correct answer and mark the Scantron
card accordingly.
Marking the Scantron card Use No. 2 pencil only. Make dark marks. Erase completely to
change.
4. Complete the licensure information on the examination sheet.

5. Return the scantron card, examination sheet and student evaluation of the course.
You’ll need 70% correct score on the post-test for successful completion of the course.

6. Retain a copy of the answers for your record.
Homestead Schools, Inc. is solely responsible for the quality and content of this CE
program and for the selection of its instructor/author, and receives no outside financial
support in the preparation, presentation or implementation of its CE activities.
The sponsor has no affiliation with companies whose products or services are mentioned
in this course material; they are mentioned only for their educational and
informational value. The sponsor’s sole source of revenue is the tuition paid by
participants like you in its CE program.

Instructor Credentials: N/A

ACE Provider Approval Statement: Homestead Schools, Inc., 1070, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Assoiciation of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses for continuing education credit.
ACE provider approval period: 4/2/2023-4/2/2026. Social workers completing this course receive 4 Clinical continuing education credits.

ADA Accomodations: Homestead Schools, Inc. ensures that its facilities accommodate and are accessible according to the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Cancellation/Refund Policy: Should you need to cancel your order or if you are not satisfied with the quality of our course material, you can return the course (before a certificate is issued) within 90 days and receive a prompt and full refund (less shipping and handling.)

Course last updated: December, 2024

Learning Objectives

Chapter 1 Description of Health Anxiety
  1.  Compare health anxiety and clinical health anxiety.
  2. State why “hypochondriasis” is being replace by “health anxiety.” (Clinical Pearl)
  3. Discuss the epidemiology, course and prognosis of health anxiety.
  4. Describe somatization disorder and somatic delusion.
  5. Compare illness phobia and hypochondriasis.
  6. Discuss generalized anxiety disorder.
  7. Describe the three self-report inventories.
Chapter 2 Theories and Models of Health Anxiety
  1. Define the biopsychosocial model.
  2. List the origin of core beliefs.
  3. Describe physiological maintenance factors.
  4. Discuss the three ways in which anxious apprehension affects cognitive processing in those with health anxiety.
  5. Describe the three behavioral maintenance factors.
Chapter 3 Diagnosis and Treatment Indications
  1. Discuss the task of the mental health practitioner when assessing the patient.
  2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of cognitive behavior therapy.
  3. List several ways CBT can be presented to a patient.
  4. List several topics for eliciting change talk.
Chapter 4 Treatment
  1. Describe the functional assessment.
  2. Describe the four psychoeducation modules of CBT,
  3. Compare all-or-nothing thinking and fortune-telling.
  4. Discuss possibilities and probabilities when describing health anxiety.
  5. Discuss short-and long-term advantages of living with uncertainity.
  6. Describe the “Pie Chart Technique.”
  7. Define exposure and response prevention.
  8. Compare situational and interoceptive exposure.
  9. Discuss the SUDS scale.
  10. Discuss the development of interceptive exposure.
  11. List the cognitive therapy techniques used during exposure, according to the Clinical Pearl (pg.54).
  12. Describe response prevention.
  13. Define habituation.
  14. Discuss cultural factors that influence assessment and treatment of health anxiety.