Cognitive therapy in the treatment of hypochondriasis

The term hypochondriasis was first coined over 2000 years ago to describe a physical illness afflicting the hypochondrium. Subsequently the term was used for a variety of physical illnesses, until the 17th century when forms of melancholia were labelled as hypo chondriasis. Since then a very large number of psychiatric disorders have been given the term hypo chondriasis, for example, a form of schizophrenia, anxiety neurosis and malingering (Kellner, 1986). The position has become clearer, in that hypo chondriasis is now accepted as a false belief in illness. That this belief is at the centre of a primary condition has been open to debate. Kenyon's (1964)