Fallon postulated that hypochondria was in fact a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) - for some types of which high doses of serotonin-reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) like Prozac were reported to be an effective treatment. In 1993, Fallon sent more than five hundred letters to physicians affiliated with Columbia, asking each to refer patients who might be hypochondriacs to his clinic. "I got a single referral. Just one," he recalled. The problem? Hypochondria was such an embarrassing diagnosis that no physician would dare to suggest that a patient was suffering from it. Undeterred, Fallon placed advertisements in the Daily News and the Post, but instead of using the word "hypochondria," he simply said he was lookking for patients with "heightened illness concerns" to participate in a clinical trial. He was deluged with responses.

[Fallon's landmark study (which followed subjects for nine months) showed a statistically significant difference in the abatement of hypochondriacal symptoms between a group taking Prozac and one taking a placebo. One complication arose, however, with the so-called nocebo effect: many patients randomly assigned to take a chemically inert placebo reported suffering from side effects associated with taking Prozac, like insomnia and indigestion; one patient, suspecting that she had been switched into the placebo group, even reported suffering from troubling Prozac-withdrawal symptoms, including profound nausea, recurrent nightmares, profuse sweating, and pounding in her chest. Ironically enough, she was suffering from hypochondria.]


Fallon, Brian (?-    ) American neuropsychiatrist [noted for his pioneering study of hypochondria]

[Sources: The New Yorker, 2003-08-11]

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