Daily worrying and somatic health complaints: Testing the effectiveness of a simple worry reduction intervention

Abstract

This study examines whether worry is prospectively associated with somatic complaints and whether a worry reduction intervention can decrease these complaints. One hundred and seventy-one high school students (16–17 years old) kept a log of their worry duration and frequency for 6 days, of whom half were instructed to try to postpone worrying to a special 30-min worry period each day (‘postponers’). Somatic symptoms during ‘the last 3 days’ were assessed before and after the 6 days. At follow-up, postponers reported fewer complaints than controls, controlled for baseline. This reduction appeared to be mediated by worry duration, and pertained to, amongst others, lower back pain, neck pain, coughing/bronchitis, breathing difficulties and stomach pains. Thus, daily worry appears to be prospectively related to a broad set of somatic complaints, and its effect might be reversed by a simple intervention. Possible underlying mechanisms include prolonged physiological activity and illness-related perseverative cognition.

Keywords:

• Worry
• somatic complaints
• intervention
• ecological momentary assessment
• stress

Notes

¹ This p-value is an arbitrary choice: if these tests were confirmatory, p-values would have to be corrected for multiple tests. After a sequentially rejected Bonferroni correction procedure for multiple tests (Simes, 1986) only effects on heartburn, hot flushes, chest pain and arm pain remained significant.

² See note 1: In a confirmatory analysis, effects on coughing and chest pain would not be significant.