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Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review

BACKGROUND: Cyberchondria has been brought into sharp focus during the COVID-19 health emergency; it refers to individuals who obsessively and compulsively search for health information online, resulting in excessive health concerns. Recent scholarship focuses on its obsessive and compulsive aspect,...

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Autores principales: Yang, Yi, Ta, Na, Li, Zhanghao
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9289532/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35859839
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.897426
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author Yang, Yi
Ta, Na
Li, Zhanghao
author_facet Yang, Yi
Ta, Na
Li, Zhanghao
author_sort Yang, Yi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Cyberchondria has been brought into sharp focus during the COVID-19 health emergency; it refers to individuals who obsessively and compulsively search for health information online, resulting in excessive health concerns. Recent scholarship focuses on its obsessive and compulsive aspect, following a biopsychosocial approach as opposed to a pathology of health anxiety. It lacks interpretation of the socio-psychological dynamics between the dimensions. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to propose a holistic view toward understanding cyberchondria as an obsessive–compulsive syndrome and considers possible interventions. It specifically seeks to explain cyberchondria from diversified mediator variables and to pinpoint connections between each perspective. METHODOLOGY: Comprehensive searches of databases such as PubMed and Springer were conducted to identify English articles relating to cyberchondria from 2001 to 2022. Based on a systematic filtering process, 27 articles were finally reviewed. FINDINGS: The authors compare and confirm three forecasts to predict cyberchondria, associating it with individual metacognition, uncertainty of unverified information, and algorithm-driven, biased information environments. VALUE: Theoretically, a holistic framework is proposed to explain the obsessive and compulsive features of cyberchondria. Clinically, the research calls for more professional psychoeducation and chain screening of cyberchondria and other psychological disorders. Socially, it promotes support for risk-sensitive, information-deficient groups during pandemics like COVID-19. It also stresses more careful use of algorithm-driven search engine technology for platforms delivering medical information. Future research may explore areas such as the association between cyberchondria and other social-related disorders, as well as correlations among cyberchondria, obsessive and compulsive disorders, medical trust, and algorithm-driven search results.
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spelling pubmed-92895322022-07-19 Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review Yang, Yi Ta, Na Li, Zhanghao Front Psychol Psychology BACKGROUND: Cyberchondria has been brought into sharp focus during the COVID-19 health emergency; it refers to individuals who obsessively and compulsively search for health information online, resulting in excessive health concerns. Recent scholarship focuses on its obsessive and compulsive aspect, following a biopsychosocial approach as opposed to a pathology of health anxiety. It lacks interpretation of the socio-psychological dynamics between the dimensions. OBJECTIVE: This review aims to propose a holistic view toward understanding cyberchondria as an obsessive–compulsive syndrome and considers possible interventions. It specifically seeks to explain cyberchondria from diversified mediator variables and to pinpoint connections between each perspective. METHODOLOGY: Comprehensive searches of databases such as PubMed and Springer were conducted to identify English articles relating to cyberchondria from 2001 to 2022. Based on a systematic filtering process, 27 articles were finally reviewed. FINDINGS: The authors compare and confirm three forecasts to predict cyberchondria, associating it with individual metacognition, uncertainty of unverified information, and algorithm-driven, biased information environments. VALUE: Theoretically, a holistic framework is proposed to explain the obsessive and compulsive features of cyberchondria. Clinically, the research calls for more professional psychoeducation and chain screening of cyberchondria and other psychological disorders. Socially, it promotes support for risk-sensitive, information-deficient groups during pandemics like COVID-19. It also stresses more careful use of algorithm-driven search engine technology for platforms delivering medical information. Future research may explore areas such as the association between cyberchondria and other social-related disorders, as well as correlations among cyberchondria, obsessive and compulsive disorders, medical trust, and algorithm-driven search results. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-07-04 /pmc/articles/PMC9289532/ /pubmed/35859839 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.897426 Text en Copyright © 2022 Yang, Ta and Li. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Yang, Yi
Ta, Na
Li, Zhanghao
Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review
title Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review
title_full Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review
title_fullStr Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review
title_full_unstemmed Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review
title_short Investigating the Obsessive and Compulsive Features of Cyberchondria: A Holistic Review
title_sort investigating the obsessive and compulsive features of cyberchondria: a holistic review
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9289532/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35859839
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.897426
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