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Personality Change following Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety

Personality traits have traditionally been viewed as stable, but recent studies suggest that they could be affected through psychological treatment. Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) for severe health anxiety (DSM-IV hypochondriasis) has been shown to be effective in reducing health a...

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Autores principales: Hedman, Erik, Andersson, Gerhard, Lindefors, Nils, Gustavsson, Petter, Lekander, Mats, Rück, Christian, Andersson, Erik, Ljótsson, Brjánn
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4250052/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25437150
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113871
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author Hedman, Erik
Andersson, Gerhard
Lindefors, Nils
Gustavsson, Petter
Lekander, Mats
Rück, Christian
Andersson, Erik
Ljótsson, Brjánn
author_facet Hedman, Erik
Andersson, Gerhard
Lindefors, Nils
Gustavsson, Petter
Lekander, Mats
Rück, Christian
Andersson, Erik
Ljótsson, Brjánn
author_sort Hedman, Erik
collection PubMed
description Personality traits have traditionally been viewed as stable, but recent studies suggest that they could be affected through psychological treatment. Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) for severe health anxiety (DSM-IV hypochondriasis) has been shown to be effective in reducing health anxiety, but its effect on measures of personality traits has not been investigated. The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of ICBT on personality traits in the three broad dimensions - neuroticism, extraversion and aggression. We hypothesized that participants in ICBT would reduce their level of neuroticism compared to controls that did not receive the active treatment. No specific predictions were made regarding extraversion and aggression. Data from a randomized controlled trial were used in which participants were allocated to 12 weeks of ICBT (n = 40) or to a basic attention control condition (n = 41). Personality traits were assessed with the Swedish Universities Scales of Personality and the primary outcome of health anxiety was the Health Anxiety Inventory. There was a significant interaction effect of group and time on neuroticism-related scales, indicating larger pre- to post-treatment reductions in the Internet-based CBT group compared to the control condition. Analyses at 6-month follow-up showed that changes were stable. Traits relating to extraversion and aggression were largely unchanged. This study is the first to demonstrate that a brief ICBT intervention for severe health anxiety causes long-term changes in measures of personality traits related to neuroticism. The treatment thus has a broader impact than just reducing health anxiety. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov (ID NCT00828152)
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spelling pubmed-42500522014-12-05 Personality Change following Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety Hedman, Erik Andersson, Gerhard Lindefors, Nils Gustavsson, Petter Lekander, Mats Rück, Christian Andersson, Erik Ljótsson, Brjánn PLoS One Research Article Personality traits have traditionally been viewed as stable, but recent studies suggest that they could be affected through psychological treatment. Internet-based cognitive behavior therapy (ICBT) for severe health anxiety (DSM-IV hypochondriasis) has been shown to be effective in reducing health anxiety, but its effect on measures of personality traits has not been investigated. The main aim of this study was to investigate the impact of ICBT on personality traits in the three broad dimensions - neuroticism, extraversion and aggression. We hypothesized that participants in ICBT would reduce their level of neuroticism compared to controls that did not receive the active treatment. No specific predictions were made regarding extraversion and aggression. Data from a randomized controlled trial were used in which participants were allocated to 12 weeks of ICBT (n = 40) or to a basic attention control condition (n = 41). Personality traits were assessed with the Swedish Universities Scales of Personality and the primary outcome of health anxiety was the Health Anxiety Inventory. There was a significant interaction effect of group and time on neuroticism-related scales, indicating larger pre- to post-treatment reductions in the Internet-based CBT group compared to the control condition. Analyses at 6-month follow-up showed that changes were stable. Traits relating to extraversion and aggression were largely unchanged. This study is the first to demonstrate that a brief ICBT intervention for severe health anxiety causes long-term changes in measures of personality traits related to neuroticism. The treatment thus has a broader impact than just reducing health anxiety. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov (ID NCT00828152) Public Library of Science 2014-12-01 /pmc/articles/PMC4250052/ /pubmed/25437150 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113871 Text en © 2014 Hedman et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Hedman, Erik
Andersson, Gerhard
Lindefors, Nils
Gustavsson, Petter
Lekander, Mats
Rück, Christian
Andersson, Erik
Ljótsson, Brjánn
Personality Change following Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety
title Personality Change following Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety
title_full Personality Change following Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety
title_fullStr Personality Change following Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety
title_full_unstemmed Personality Change following Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety
title_short Personality Change following Internet-Based Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Severe Health Anxiety
title_sort personality change following internet-based cognitive behavior therapy for severe health anxiety
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4250052/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25437150
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0113871
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