Lifestyle medicine may be the most effective way of treating illness anxiety disorder (IAD), formerly hypochondriasis. IAD as defined in the DSM-5 can now be diagnosed using positive symptoms, which means it is no longer a diagnosis of exclusion. Tools used in lifestyle medicine including motivational interviewing and mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR) may be particularly useful in the management of IAD.
Keywords: Illness anxiety disorder; hypochondriasis; lifestyle medicine.