Prior research has reported that individual differences influence both placebo and nocebo responses. The present study examined how individual personality, as well as trust, influence placebo/nocebo belief and symptom reporting after receiving an inert capsule that for some was described as an active “cognitively-enhancing” trial medication. Individuals (N = 104) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: condition A participants were told they’d received the medication, condition B participants were told they’d received a placebo, and condition C participants were told, via random assignment, each would receive either the medication or placebo (after the experiment this condition listed the group – medication or placebo - each believed s/he was in). The study was completed in the UNT Student Health and Wellness Center to provide context in a medical setting. Of the 104 participants, 46 (44.2%) were either placed by experimental design or self-report in the medication group. Participants with a belief in medication ingestion, regardless of condition (i.e., A or C), reported significantly more symptoms (M = 16.65, SD = 3.178), than participants who believed they had ingested a placebo (M = 14.21, SD = 2.58), t (102) = 4.32, p = .001. Aspects of Neuroticism and Extroversion, as well as trust were correlated with symptom reporting and/or placebo/nocebo responses. It appears that that personality is part of a combination including trust, context and expectations. It is recommended that future research on personality and placebo effects consider the role of individual factors, context and communication of expectations.

This thesis focusses on the role of attentional bias for health-threat information in the production and maintenance of medically unexplained symptoms, somatoform disorders and high levels of physical symptom reporting. It is comprised of three separate papers. Paper 1 was prepared for Clinical Psychology Review as a systematic review of the evidence concerning attentional bias for health–threat information in populations presenting with somatoform/somatic symptom disorders and high levels of physical symptom reporting. From the 20 studies deemed relevant for review, it was concluded that - although limited - the evidence indicated that a relationship existed between attentional bias for health-threat information and levels of physical symptom reporting. No robust evidence was found to establish whether this relationship was a casual one. Paper 2 was prepared for Journal of Abnormal Psychology and investigated whether an exogenous cueing task could be used to reduce presumed attentional bias for health-threat information in a sample of high symptom reporting students. The results showed an unexpected attentional avoidance of health-threat information at baseline, which the study manipulation unintentionally exacerbated. No change in levels of physical symptom reporting was noted between groups (attributed to a methodological error) but a trend in relatively greater anxiety for those who received the manipulation was noted. It was concluded that avoidance may be a key factor in high symptom reporting and that this merited further research. Paper 3 provided a critical reflection of Papers 1 and 2, as well as the research process as a whole. Implications for theory and clinical practice as well as future research directions were discussed.

No description available.

The first part of this thesis explores the potential role of metacognitive beliefs and strategies in functional somatic symptoms. Current models (for example, Brown, 2004; Deary, Chalder and Sharpe, 2007) and treatments of functional somatic symptoms focus on cognitive models and cognitive behavioural treatments which show modest treatment effects. A metacognitive account is discussed based upon supervisory regulatory executive function theory (SREF; Wells and Matthews, 1994) and research is systematically reviewed which may support such an account. Current research offers limited indirect support for metacognitive factors playing a role in the difficulties of people suffering from functional somatic symptoms. This paper concludes that further research is needed in this promising area. The second part of the thesis describes a cross-sectional correlational study which examines the relationship of somatic symptom reporting in primary care with metacognitive beliefs, finding a significant association for the first time. Fifty patients were recruited from general practice surgeries took part in the study. Support for the novel Metacognitive Health Questionnaire measure was also found. This measure showed significant associations between health specific metacognitive beliefs and body focussed attention, health preoccupation and distress. This measure also showed significant associations with illness behaviours and thought control strategies. Each of these findings is in line with SREF theory. This study provides preliminary support for the role of metacognition in symptom reporting. The third part of the thesis critically evaluated issues salient to the study including methodologically, supervisory, ethical and clinical issues. The interpretations of the literature review and findings of the research paper are limited by the lack of direct findings to support a metacognitive account, and the cross sectional nature of this study. It is hoped that the prospective study which the research study reported forms part, will offer more robust insights into the role of metacognition in symptom reporting, and that future studies will examine this area further.

The aim of the work presented in this thesis, was to investigate two general hypotheses derived from theories of the development and maintenance of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) and health anxiety; that individual differences in attention to the body and somatic awareness contribute to the experience of physical symptoms and health anxiety. Three studies (an analogue pilot study, a prospective cohort study with primary care patients, and an analogue study involving a negative mood induction) were conducted to investigate the relationship between attention, somatic awareness, symptom reporting and health anxiety. In the pilot study, enhanced attentional disengagement from neutral material was associated with health anxiety and delayed disengagement from neutral material was associated with symptom reporting. In the primary care study, enhanced disengagement from neutral body-irrelevant material and delayed disengagement from threatening body-relevant material were independently associated with health care utilisation, but not symptom reporting or health anxiety. However, the longitudinal analysis revealed that attentional disengagement was neither a predictor of, or predicted by, health care utilisation. The tendency to experience distortions in somatic awareness was independently associated with symptom reporting, health anxiety and health care utilisation. Longitudinal analysis revealed that symptom reporting and health anxiety were independent predictors of somatic distortion, but that somatic distortion was not a predictor of symptom reporting or health anxiety. The results of a structural equation modeling analysis suggest that a model including both attentional disengagement and the tendency to experience distortions in somatic awareness improves understanding of symptom reporting, health anxiety and health care utilisation. In the negative mood induction study, however, neither attentional disengagement nor the tendency to experience distortions in somatic awareness were significantly associated with symptom reporting or health anxiety. The evidence presented here suggests that complex attentional processes may be associated with health seeking behaviours, possibly via a third unknown variable. This evidence, however, does not support the often-hypothesised general attentional bias for the body as a causative factor in the development of health anxiety or symptom reporting. This research has provided important evidence about attentional differences and how future research might extend the findings reported here. Furthermore, the findings regarding the tendency to experience distortions in somatic awareness provides empirical support for theories that suggest MUS may be associated with a tendency to place greater weight on top-down factors in the creation of somatic awareness (Brown, 2004; Edwards et al., 2013). However, whilst alterations in somatic awareness may be a maintenance factor for symptom reporting and health anxiety, somatic distortion may not be a causative factor in their development.