What is Cyberchondria?

CYBERCHONDRIA: THE PROBLEM WITH ONLINE SELF-DIAGNOSING WHAT IS CYBERCHONDRIA? Cyberchondria is the unsupported escalation of a patient's concern about health, based on their personal online research and websites' information about illness. cyber + chondria = CYBERCHONDRIA (relating to technology) (from hypochondria, anxiety from undiagnosed illness) PATIENTS ARE SELF-DIAGNOSING FROM ONLINE SOURCES: 1111 35% of U.S. adults say they've gone online to research a medical condition M4 46% say the info they found caused them to seek a medical professional of online diagnosers say it was some- thing they could take care of at home 11% say it was somewhere in between HOW ACCURATE IS THE SELF-DIAGNOSIS? 41% 35% 18% 1% say they didn't visit a doctor say their conversation with the say a medical professional confirmed (additional 2% say a medical professional partially confirmed) say when they saw a medical professional, they did not to get a professional's with professional agree the self-diagnosis (or had another assessment) assessment was inconclusive WHO'S SELF-DIAGNOSING? Women are more likely to go online to find a possible diagnosis than men. GROUPS THAT ARE LIKELY TO SEARCH HEALTH ONLINE: Those with college or advanced degree Young people Those in a household earning $75,000+ 2in5R people said that their cyber research increased their medical anxiety. Like obsessive-compulsive disorder, hypochondriasis (the condition of believing that you have life-threatening illnesses) involves distressing, intrusive thoughts & repetitive behaviors. If someone's pre-disposed to anxiety about their health, their research and connecting symptoms to diseases-without the opinion of a medical professional-can be upsetting and create unneeded stress. Sources: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hypochondria/basics/definition/con-20028314 http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/01/15/health-online-2013/ http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/ryenw/papers/WhiteAMIA2009.pdf http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/bjprcpsych/194/6/481.full.pdf MEDICAL ASSISTING PROGRAMS ТОР-