cyberchondriac

English

WOTD – 30 March 2024

Etymology

Blend of cyber- (prefix denoting cyberspace or the Internet, or computers more generally) +‎ hypochondriac.^[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌsaɪbəˈkɒndɹɪæk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌsaɪbəɹˈkɑndɹiˌæk/
Hyphenation: cy‧ber‧chon‧dri‧ac

Noun

cyberchondriac (plural cyberchondriacs)

(Internet, psychology) A hypochondriac (“person with an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness”) who researches their potential medical condition on the Internet. [from late 20th c.]
- 1998 June 27, Roger Dobson, “Doctors warn the cybersick”, in The Independent‎^[1], London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-07-08:
  Doctors are on the alert for a new kind of victim: the cyberchondriac. With so much health information now on the Internet, thousands of people are using their computers to try to match symptoms with diseases.
- 1999 March 4, Louis Harris, “Harris survey: New breed of ‘cyberchondriacs’”, in John A. Jones, editor, Johnson City Press, volume 79, number 206, Johnson City, Tenn.: Sandusky Newspaper Group, →OCLC, page 4, columns 1–2:
  The growth of the Internet—arguably the fastest-growing new technology in history—has generated explosive growth of people who search the Web for healthcare information related to specific diseases. We call these people "cyberchondriacs." […] The diseases that generate the greatest use of the Web are depression (19 percent of cyberchondriacs), allergies or sinus (16 percent), cancer (15 percent), bipolar disorder (14 percent), arthritis or rheumatism (10 percent), high blood pressure (10 percent), migraine (9 percent), anxiety disorder (9 percent), heart disease (8 percent) and sleep disorders (8 percent).
- 2002, Steven B. Kayne, “Practice and Delivery of CAM [Complementary and Alternative Medicine]”, in Complementary Therapies for Pharmacists, London: Pharmaceutical Press, →ISBN, part 1 (Introduction to CAM), pages 25–26:
  Some doctors complain that they are being plagued by a new type of hypochondriac, dubbed the cyberchondriac, a condition in which patients arrive at the surgery armed with piles of information to try to prove that they have a certain illness. A quick internet search for information on back pain illustrates the problem. Search for the word 'backache' using the Excite search engine, for example, and you are presented with a list of 2643 sites.
- 2006, Alan Gillies, “Informatics Can Empower Patients”, in The Clinician’s Guide to Surviving IT, Abingdon, Oxfordshire: Radcliffe Publishing, →ISBN, part I (What Can Informatics Do for Me?), page 67:
  Faced with the printout-wielding patient or ‘cyberchondriac’, it is tempting to take the view that the Internet is the spawn of the Devil. However, a better strategy may be to offer more reliable Internet sites for the patient to visit; […]
- 2006, S[aif] Rahman, “Baltic Balti”, in Down to a Sunset Sea, [London]: Twenty First Century Publishers, →ISBN, page 84:
  None of them carried news of research into his condition, but there was enough for any cyberchondriac to get his mind around.
- [2007 November, “Word Watch: Cyberchondriac”, in Will Smith, editor, Maximum PC, San Francisco, Calif.: Future US, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14:
  Word Watch: Cyberchondriac [title] Definition: A person who's convinced he or she has a particular medical condition based on information found on the Internet.]
- 2012 November 14, Lisa Jewell, “Are you a cyberchondriac?”, in Irish Independent‎^[2], Dublin: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2024-03-07:
  An article in the April 2012 issue of ‘Psychological Science’ suggested that the irrational tendency at work in the brains of cyberchondriacs is the same as that in the brains of gamblers. When gamblers get a positive roll of the dice, they think that their luck will continue. When cyberchondriacs match a few of the symptoms for a condition, they take that as a positive sign and may assume they must have the other symptoms on the list.

Hypernyms

hypochondriac

Related terms

cyberchondria

Translations

hypochondriac who researches their potential medical conditions on the Internet

Finnish: netistä sairauksia hakeva luulosairas
Macedonian: please add this translation if you can

References

^ “cyberchondriac, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “cyberchondriac, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.