Definition of cyberchondriac in English:
cyberchondriac
nounˌsʌɪbəˈkɒndrɪakˌsībərˈkändrēak
A person who compulsively searches the Internet for information about particular real or imagined symptoms of illness.
everybody is terribly health-conscious these days—it's no surprise that many people are becoming cyberchondriacs
Example sentencesExamples
- It is because cyberchondriacs fervently believe they are physically ill that they get so frustrated when told they are not.
- Are you a cyberchondriac?
- Like hypochondriacs constantly imagining they have various fatal illnesses, cyberchondriacs declare themselves outrageously sick after reading medical material on the Web.
- There's a couple of things that you can do to sort of do safe surfing without becoming a cyberchondriac.
- Health information online is breeding a generation of cyberchondriacs.
- So to become a "cyberchondriac" and join the 80 percent of Americans who scour the Web for health information, click here for the latest.
- The percentage of all adults who are cyberchondriacs increased from 27% in 1998 to 34% in 1999, 47% in 2001, and 53% in 2002.
- Just don't become a cyberchondriac, will you?
- Cyberchondriacs are less likely to be older people and people with low incomes.
- Doctors are on the alert for a new kind of victim: the cyberchondriac. With so much health information now in the Internet, thousands of people are using their computers to try to match symptoms with diseases.
- She suggests that fellow cyberchondriacs try what worked for her: 'I stopped looking up my symptoms on the Internet'!
- Australian doctors have warned that they are coming across various 'cyberchondriacs' - patients who misdiagnose their illnesses after Googling their symptoms.
- Self-diagnosis is dodgy at best and when it comes to trying to determine whether you are a cyberchondriac, it's bit of a Catch-22 situation.
- Many health professionals warn the web has created a world of cyberchondriacs.
- One of the main problems that cyberchondriacs face is that the web is not always reliable.
- If you're one of those people who frequently looks up their symptoms online and then panics at the diagnosis, or rather 'search results', it's possible that you're displaying all the hallmarks of a cyberchondriac.
Derivatives
noun
Many Internet users are following inaccurate information online, which U.K. researchers say can lead to erroneous self-diagnoses and cyberchondria.
Example sentencesExamples
- Overwhelming amounts of online medical information are leading researchers to coin a new psychological classification called "cyberchondria" that describes people who obsessively misdiagnose themselves using the Web.
- She has featured in a number of articles about cyberchondria, which occurs when an individual surfs the net in a frenzy of health anxiety.
- The phenomenon of cyberchondria - where patients take as read material they have spotted on the Net, then tell their GP all about their supposed condition - is already with us.
- We wrote about this back in February, but apparently the researchers behind the idea haven't gotten enough publicity yet, so they're out pushing the idea of cyberchondria again.
Origin
1990s: blend of cyber- and hypochondriac.