CYBERCHONDRIAC

(sy.bur.KAWN.dree.ak)

n.

A person who imagines they have a particular disease because their symptoms match those listed on an Internet health site.

— cyberchondria n.

Cyberchondria, the deluded belief you suffer from all the diseases featured on the internet, is the latest condition to add to GPs' workloads. In severe cases, patients armed with print-outs from wacko websites install themselves in the consulting room and begin reading aloud.Doctors have complained of being cornered into carrying out dozens of tests for obscure, nonexistent infections, because the cyberchondriac has memorised an impressive set of symptoms.

— Lois Rogers, "The internet addicts who give their GP a headache," Sunday Times, April 2, 2000

But 'Cyberchondriacs' and Those In Need Log On In Ever Bigger Numbers

— "Internet health and medical info gets mixed reviews, study finds," Business Wire, September 12, 1996

If it's real, it is the latest occupational hazard of living and working in cyberspace. Internet addiction would join carpal tunnel syndrome and attention deficit disorder as the malady du jour of the digerati. New York psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg coined the term "Internet Addiction Disorder" in a fit of satiric cyberchondria and posted diagnostic criteria to an Internet e-mail list support group for Internet addicts.

— Chris Allbritton, "On-line addiction," Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, June 27, 1995

Cyber Monday

cyberdisinhibition

Pierre Salinger syndrome

Internet

Medicine

People