Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun anxiety concerning one's health caused by visiting medical websites

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Blend of cyber- and hypochondria

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cyberchondria.

Examples

  • We use the term cyberchondria to refer to the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology, based on the review of search results and literature on the Web.

    Information, Culture, Policy, Education: 2008

  • We use the term cyberchondria to refer to the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptomatology, based on the review of search results and literature on the Web.

    Information, Culture, Policy, Education: Cyberchondria: another way to fear the internets 2008

  • Although Microsoft Word still underlines it in red, googling the word cyberchondriac provides 46,800 hits, and the term cyberchondria has had its own Wikipedia entry since June, 2005.

    Resources for Cyberchondriacs — Slaw 2007

  • Although Microsoft Word still underlines it in red, googling the word cyberchondriac provides 46,800 hits, and the term cyberchondria has had its own Wikipedia entry since June, 2005.

    Resources for Cyberchondriacs — Slaw 2007

  • Although Microsoft Word still underlines it in red, googling the word cyberchondriac provides 46,800 hits, and the term cyberchondria has had its own Wikipedia entry since June, 2005.

    Slaw » Resources for Cyberchondriacs » Print 2007

  • The problem is compounded by my developing cyberchondria, which is a particularly 21st century-type of an affliction, referring as it does to the inflation of worries about your state of health based on material you have dredged up online.

    WalesOnline - Home 2010

  • Now Microsoft has completed the first formal study of health-related Web searches, and the rise of so-called cyberchondria: the distress caused by searching innocuous symptoms, and finding links that then quickly lead to extreme conclusions. pain would more likely lead to a link for the worst-case scenario like heart attack, than to the more mundane, "indigestion."

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2009

  • Internet fuels bad self-diagnoses and 'cyberchondria'

    msnbc.com: Top msnbc.com headlines 2010

  • An example of "cyberchondria" is someone with a brain tumor.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2008

  • According to the NYTimes article, the syndrome has been known as "cyberchondria" since at least the year ...

    Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now 2008

  • Individuals frequently use the Internet to search for medical information. For some individuals, repeated searches for medical information on the Internet exacerbate health anxiety. Researchers have termed this phenomenon "cyberchondria" and have suggested that cyberchondria might relate to the excessive use of the Internet for other purposes as well.

    Problematic internet use and internet searches for medical information: the role of health anxiety Thomas A Fergus 2023

  • Individuals frequently use the Internet to search for medical information. For some individuals, repeated searches for medical information on the Internet exacerbate health anxiety. Researchers have termed this phenomenon "cyberchondria" and have suggested that cyberchondria might relate to the excessive use of the Internet for other purposes as well.

    Problematic internet use and internet searches for medical information: the role of health anxiety Thomas A Fergus 2023

  • Cyberchondria is described as “excessive or repeated search for health-related information on the Internet, driven by distress or anxiety about health, which only amplifies such distress or anxiety.”

    Stop googling monkeypox and read this story about “cyberchondria” and the news Hanaa’ Tameez 2023

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • “If that headache plaguing you this morning led you first to a Web search and then to the conclusion that you must have a brain tumor, you may instead be suffering from cyberchondria.�?

    The New York Times, Microsoft Examines Causes of ‘Cyberchondria’ , by John Markoff, November 24, 2008

    November 26, 2008

  • Access hypochondria.

    January 31, 2009

  • cyberchondria, n.

    The Guardian, 9 October 2018:

    Among the issues they are hoping to explore are cyberhoarding – reluctance to delete information gathered online – and cyberchondria – compulsively using search engines and websites in the hope of finding reassurance about medical fears, only to self-diagnose further ailments.

    December 31, 2018