Dictionary

cyberchondriac en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˌsaɪbəɹˈkɑndɹiˌæk/ (General-American)
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ˌsaɪbəˈkɒndɹɪæk/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Etymology tree Ancient Greek κυβερνητικός (kubernētikós)bor. English cybernetic English cyber- English hypochondriac blend English cyberchondriac Blend of cyber- (prefix denoting cyberspace or the Internet, or computers more generally) + hypochondriac, equivalent to cyberchondria + -ac.

Meanings

1. (Internet) A hypochondriac (“person with an excessive preoccupation or worry about having a serious illness”) who researches their potential medical condition on the Internet.
   • 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. 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:
   • 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, 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:
   • None of them carried news of research into his condition, but there was enough for any cyberchondriac to get his mind around. 2006, S[aif] Rahman, “Baltic Balti”, in Down to a Sunset Sea, [London]: Twenty First Century Publishers, →ISBN, page 84:
   • 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. 1998 June 27, Roger Dobson, “Doctors warn the cybersick”, in The Independent, London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Jul 2022:
   • The absence of a ‘stop signal’ to internet searching may spell the risk for the development of cyberchondriac behaviour. 2021 March 29, Natalie Grover, “Looking up health symptoms online less harmful than thought, study says”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 24 Mar 2022:
   • 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. [2007 November, “Word Watch: Cyberchondriac”, in Will Smith, editor, Maximum PC, San Francisco, Calif.: Future US, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14:
   • 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. 2012 November 14, Lisa Jewell, “Are you a cyberchondriac?”, in Irish Independent, Dublin: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 07 Mar 2024:
   • 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). 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:

Forms

Hypernyms

hypochondriac

Relateds

cyberchondria · Doctor Google

Translations (3)

fi netistä sairauksia hakeva luulosairas (hypochondriac who researches their potential medical conditions on the Internet) · pl cyberchondryczka (hypochondriac who researches their potential medical conditions on the Internet) · pl cyberchondryk (hypochondriac who researches their potential medical conditions on the Internet)