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Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder?
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The main purpose of this narrative review is to provide a brief overview of the current empirical evidence regarding the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of cyberchondria, with a focus on the potential classification of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction. Although...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9909655/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36785757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40429-022-00462-3 |
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author | Mestre-Bach, Gemma Potenza, Marc N. |
author_facet | Mestre-Bach, Gemma Potenza, Marc N. |
author_sort | Mestre-Bach, Gemma |
collection | PubMed |
description | PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The main purpose of this narrative review is to provide a brief overview of the current empirical evidence regarding the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of cyberchondria, with a focus on the potential classification of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction. Although cyberchondria has been widely associated with anxiety, it has also been suggested that it may be linked to obsessive–compulsive features. A less explored proposal is the categorization of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction. The present review explores the existing literature with respect to the possible classification of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction by considering cyberchondria with respect to components of the interaction of person, affect, cognition and execution model. RECENT FINDINGS: There is a lack of consensus regarding the definition and conceptualization of cyberchondria. The empirical evidence available to date suggests that cyberchondria is a multifactorial construct that operates transdiagnostically, particularly with respect to obsessive–compulsive-related disorders and health-related anxiety. The extent to which the condition may reflect a behavioral addiction as a form of problematic use of the internet also warrants consideration. Cyberchondria may have become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular populations prone to health-related anxiety likely having greater vulnerability. Existing data in part support the potential classification of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction, although many gaps in understanding currently exist. SUMMARY: Cyberchondria appears to be a growing concern. However, there is not yet enough empirical evidence to determine whether this clinical condition has enough similarities with behavioral addictions to be considered as one. Likewise, psychometric instruments that exist to date have not been designed from the theoretical framework of behavioral addictions, so most of the factors that they evaluate may be preferentially related to anxiety. Finally, there is still no consensus on whether cyberchondria should be addressed in the context of health anxiety interventions, OCRD, or behavioral addictions; thus, more empirical evidence is needed. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9909655 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-99096552023-02-09 Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder? Mestre-Bach, Gemma Potenza, Marc N. Curr Addict Rep Internet Use Disorders (h-j Rumpf and J Billieux, Section Editors) PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The main purpose of this narrative review is to provide a brief overview of the current empirical evidence regarding the conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of cyberchondria, with a focus on the potential classification of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction. Although cyberchondria has been widely associated with anxiety, it has also been suggested that it may be linked to obsessive–compulsive features. A less explored proposal is the categorization of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction. The present review explores the existing literature with respect to the possible classification of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction by considering cyberchondria with respect to components of the interaction of person, affect, cognition and execution model. RECENT FINDINGS: There is a lack of consensus regarding the definition and conceptualization of cyberchondria. The empirical evidence available to date suggests that cyberchondria is a multifactorial construct that operates transdiagnostically, particularly with respect to obsessive–compulsive-related disorders and health-related anxiety. The extent to which the condition may reflect a behavioral addiction as a form of problematic use of the internet also warrants consideration. Cyberchondria may have become more prevalent during the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular populations prone to health-related anxiety likely having greater vulnerability. Existing data in part support the potential classification of cyberchondria as a behavioral addiction, although many gaps in understanding currently exist. SUMMARY: Cyberchondria appears to be a growing concern. However, there is not yet enough empirical evidence to determine whether this clinical condition has enough similarities with behavioral addictions to be considered as one. Likewise, psychometric instruments that exist to date have not been designed from the theoretical framework of behavioral addictions, so most of the factors that they evaluate may be preferentially related to anxiety. Finally, there is still no consensus on whether cyberchondria should be addressed in the context of health anxiety interventions, OCRD, or behavioral addictions; thus, more empirical evidence is needed. Springer International Publishing 2023-02-09 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC9909655/ /pubmed/36785757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40429-022-00462-3 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. |
spellingShingle | Internet Use Disorders (h-j Rumpf and J Billieux, Section Editors) Mestre-Bach, Gemma Potenza, Marc N. Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder? |
title | Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder? |
title_full | Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder? |
title_fullStr | Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder? |
title_full_unstemmed | Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder? |
title_short | Cyberchondria: a Growing Concern During the COVID-19 Pandemic and a Possible Addictive Disorder? |
title_sort | cyberchondria: a growing concern during the covid-19 pandemic and a possible addictive disorder? |
topic | Internet Use Disorders (h-j Rumpf and J Billieux, Section Editors) |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9909655/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36785757 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40429-022-00462-3 |
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