Cyberchondria: A Review

Year 2020, , 435 - 443, 28.12.2020

Ali Erdoğan , Cicek Hocaoglu

https://doi.org/10.18863/pgy.654648

Cited By: 12

Abstract

Internet has become an important source of health information that enables people to access a large portion of medical information. Cyberchondria is defined as behavior seeking information about health from the Internet. It can be mentioned as an internet-mediated version of hypochondriasis. It is emphasized that health anxiety is at the forefront in the etiology. Information pollution on the Internet is an important risk factor. There are no diagnostic criteria. It is not included in the DSM classification. Although there are various assessment scales, the most commonly used assessment tool is the Cyberchondria Severty Scale. It is a psychometric scale with 34 questions to measure the level of cyberchondria. Psychoeducation is the main approach in the treatment and no specific pharmacological treatment has been defined.

Keywords

Cyberchondria, health anxiety, internet

Siberkondria: Bir Gözden Geçirme

Abstract

İnternet tıbbi bilgilerin büyük bir kısmına insanların erişimini sağlayan önemli bir sağlık bilgi kaynağı haline gelmiştir. Siberkondria, hipokondriyazın dijital bir versiyonu olan, bir kişinin sağlığına ilişkin kaygı ile beslenen ve bu belirli kaygıyı güçlendiren çevrimiçi sağlıkla ilgili bilgi arayışı olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Son dönemde giderek sıklığı artmaktadır. Etyolojisinde sağlık kaygısının ön planda olduğu vurgulanmaktadır. Çevrimiçi bilgi kirliliği önemli bir risk faktörüdür. Tanı kriterleri henüz oluşturulmamış olup, tek değerlendirme aracı Siberkondri Şiddet Ölçeği’dir. Siberkondria düzeyini ölçmeye yönelik 34 soruluk 2014’te geliştirilmiş psikometrik bir ölçektir. Tedavisinde ise temel yaklaşım psikoeğitim olup belirli bir farmakolojik tedavi tanımlanmamıştır.

Keywords

Siberkondria, Sağlık kaygısı, İnternet

References

• Abramowitz JS, Moore EL (2007) An experimental analysis of hypochondriasis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(3): 413–424.
• American Psychiatric Association (2013) Diagnostic and statistical manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.). Washington D.C: American Psychiatric Association.
• Barke A, Bleichhardt G, Rief W, Doering BK (2016) The Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS): German Validation and Development of a Short Form. Int J Behav Med, 23(5): 595-605.
• Baumgartner SE, Hartmann T (2011) The role of health anxiety in online health information search Cyberpsychology. Behavior and Social Networking, 14(10): 613–618. Chung JE (2013) Patient-provider discussion of online health information: Results from the 2007 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS). Journal of Health Communication, 18(6): 627–648.
• Criddle L (2010) Monsters in the closet: Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Critical care nurse, 30(6): 46-55.
• Doherty-Torstrick ER, Walton KE, Fallon BA (2016) Cyberchondria: parsing health anxiety from online behavior. Psychosomatics, 57(4): 390-400.
• Fergus TA (2013) Cyberchondria and intolerance of uncertainty: examining when individuals experience health anxiety in response to Internet searches for medical information. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw, 16(10): 735-9.
• Fox S (2006) Online Health search 2006. Pew internet&American Life Project. Erişim Tarihi: 7.8.2017 http://www.pewinternet.org/files/oldmedia/Files/Reports/2006/ PIP_Online_Health_2006. pdf.
• Fox S, Duggan M (2013) Health online 2013. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/01/15/ health online 2013.
• McElroy E, Shevlin M (2014) The development and initial validation of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS). J Anxiety Disord, 28(2): 259-65.
• McManus F, Leung C, Muse K, Williams JMG (2014) Understanding “cyberchondria:” an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the purpose, methods, and impact of seeking health information online for those with health anxiety. Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 7: 21.
• Muse K, McManus F, Leung C, Meghreblian B, Williams JM (2012) Cyberchondriasis: fact or fiction? A preliminary examination of the relationship between health anxiety and searching for health information on the Internet. J Anxiety Disord, 26: 189-196.
• Salkovskis PM, Rimes K.A, Warwick HM, Clark DM (2002) The Health Anxiety Inventory: Development and validation of scales for the measurement of health anxiety and hypochondriasis. Psychological Medicine, 32(5):843–853.
• Selvi Y, Turan SG, Sayin AA, Boysan M, Kandeger A (2018) The cyberchondria severity scale (CSS): Validity and reliability study of the Turkish version. Sleep and Hypnosis, 20(4): 241-6.
• Starcevic V, Berle D (2013) Cyberchondria: Towards a better understanding of excessive health-related internet use. Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 13(2): 205–213.
• Starcevic V, Aboujaoude E (2015) Cyberchondria, cyberbullying, cybersuicide, cybersex: “new” psychopathologies for the 21st century? World Psychiatry, 14(1): 97-100.
• Starcevic V, Berle D (2015) Cyberchondria: An old phenomenon in a new guise. Mental health in the digital age: Grave dangers, great promise, 106-117.
• Starcevic V (2017) Cyberchondria: challenges of problematic online searches for health-related information. Psychotherapy and psychosomatics, 86(3): 129-133.
• Taylor CB, Jobson KO, Winzelberg A, Abascal L (2002) The use of the Internet to provide evidence-based integrated treatment programs for mental health. Psychiatric Annals, 32(11): 671-677.
• Uzun SU, Akbay B, Özdemir C, Zencir M (2017) Siberkondria Ciddiyet Ölçeğinin ve Kısa Formunun Üniversite Öğrencilerinde Geçerlilik-Güvenilirliği 19. Ulusal Halk Sağlığı Kongresi, Kongre Kitabı: 241, Antalya, 15-19 Mart 2017.
• White RW, Horvitz E (2009a) Cyberchondria: Studies of the escalation of medical concerns in web search. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 27: 1–37.
• White RW, Horvitz E (2009b) Experiences with web search on medical concerns and self-diagnosis. AMIA annual symposium proceedings, 696–700.