Feasibility Test of the Treatment Program iACT-by Proxy - a Single Case Experimental Design

Summary

Health anxiety by proxy is defined as parents' obsessive worries about their child's health. It is a newly described phenomenon, where the parent has persistent and distressing fears that his or her child may suffer from a serious disease that is being overlooked. These intrusive thoughts may lead to excessive attention directed towards their child's body and a tendency to interpret natural bodily sensations as unnatural and abnormal. As a consequence, parents with health anxiety by proxy may repetitively perform bodily inspections of their child. Besides the stress related to worrying about your child's health, the condition can also cause frequent and unnecessary medical examinations of the child. As a possible consequence of this parental behavior, the child may be at risk of developing similar maladaptive illness behaviors, illness perceptions and illness worries. Currently, the phenomenon is widely overlooked and no treatment for health anxiety by proxy exists.

The aim of the study is to test the feasibility and possible effect of an internet-based treatment program for health anxiety by proxy (iACT-by-proxy) using a single-case experimental design.

Design The iACT-by-proxy is being tested in a single-case experimental design with multiple baselines. In a multiple baseline design the participants have different baseline lengths but the same intervention and follow-up period. The rationale behind the different baseline lengths is that it will be evident if target outcome measures change at intervention entry, but not during baseline. Thus the participants' baseline-period functions as their own control.

Hypotheses

* Patients will report a significant decrease in selected self-report measures of health anxiety by proxy answered every other day when comparing the baseline period to the interven-tion period.
* Patient self-report measures of health anxiety by proxy, emotional distress, and illness perception and catastrophizing when the child has symptoms will have decreased after intervention.

Participants Parents assessed with health anxiety by proxy with children under 18years.

Recruitment Participants are assessed with health anxiety by proxy using the Health Anxiety by Proxy Scale (HAPYS).Participants self-refer to the project through the webpage www.helbredsangst.dk. After diagnostic video-interview they are included in the project.

Conditions

• Anxiety State
• Anxiety Disorders

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Internet-based treatment

The intervention is an internet-based psychotherapy treatment with eight modules based on acceptance and commitment therapy and with written therapist contact through eight weeks.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Aarhus

  collaborator OTHER

• Aarhus University Hospital

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Charlotte Ulrikka Rask, Med.Dr · Aarhus University Hospital

Study Design

Allocation

NA

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

SINGLE_GROUP

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-06-01

Primary Completion

2023-05-08

Completion

2023-05-08

Countries

• Denmark

Study Locations