From Chris Allen, Stoke Mandeville Hospital
Brian Fallon raises an interesting point concerning the similarity between hypochondria and obsessive compulsive disorder (6 December, p 48). I have noticed that a number of patients referred for hypochondria respond well to cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT), in that their concerns about their health remit, but that they then develop obsessions.
For example, a man was recently referred to our mental health unit who was constantly visiting his family doctor with a notebook of his observations concerning indications of possible physical ailments. He was better able to manage his hypochondria following CBT, but developed an obsession with his garden. He spent increasing amounts of time in it and built traps for the neighbourhood’s cats, which he was convinced were spoiling his gardening efforts.
CBT may be able to redirect hypochondria into more socially acceptable obsessions, no doubt pleasing the doctor if not necessarily the local cats.
Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK
