Attentional Correlates of Illness Anxiety in a Non-Clinical Sample

Background: Attentional processes are assumed to play an important role in the maintenance of illness anxiety, although empirical support is relatively scarce. Methods: The present study explores the relationship between selective attention (i.e. private body consciousness and symptom reporting), intensive concentration (i.e. attentional control and sustained attention), and illness anxiety in 57 non-clinical subjects. Results: Zero-order and multiple correlations suggest that illness anxiety is significantly related to cognitive failures in everyday life and private body consciousness and to a lesser extent to symptom reporting. Conclusion: It is concluded that illness anxiety can be partly predicted from specific attentional variables. However, specific operationalizations of attentional parameters seems to determine the existence and magnitude of these relations.