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Background Research shows that the COVID Stress Scales have a robust multifactorial structure, representing five correlated facets of COVID‐19‐related distress: (a) Fear of the dangerousness of COVID‐19, which includes fear of coming into contact with fomites potentially contaminated with SARSCoV2, (b) worry about socioeconomic costs of COVID‐19 (e.g., worry about personal finances and disruption in the supply chain), (c) xenophobic fears that foreigners are spreading SARSCoV2, (d) traumatic stress symptoms associated with direct or vicarious traumatic exposure to COVID‐19 (nightmares, intrusive thoughts, or images related to COVID‐19), and (e) COVID‐19‐related compulsive checking and reassurance seeking. These factors cohere to form a COVID stress syndrome, which we sought to further delineate in the present study. Methods A population‐representative sample of 6,854 American and Canadian adults completed a self‐report survey comprising questions about current mental health and COVID‐19‐related experiences, distress, and coping. Results Network analysis revealed that worry about the dangerousness of COVID‐19 is the central feature of the syndrome. Latent class analysis indicated that the syndrome is quasi‐dimensional, comprising five classes differing in syndrome severity. Sixteen percent of participants were in the most severe class and possibly needing mental health services. Syndrome severity was correlated with preexisting psychopathology and with excessive COVID‐19‐related avoidance, panic buying, and coping difficulties during self‐isolation. Conclusion The findings provide new information about the structure and correlates of COVID stress syndrome. Further research is needed to determine whether the syndrome will abate once the pandemic has passed or whether, for some individuals, it becomes a chronic condition.

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Individuals frequently use the Internet to search for medical information. However, for some individuals, searching for medical information on the Internet is associated with an exacerbation of health anxiety. Researchers have termed this phenomenon as cyberchondria. The present research sought to shed further light onto the phenomenology of cyberchondria. In particular, the moderating effect of intolerance of uncertainty (IU) on the relationship between the frequency of Internet searches for medical information and health anxiety was examined using a large sample of medically healthy community adults located in the United States (N=512). The purported moderating effect of IU was supported. More specifically, the relationship between the frequency of Internet searches for medical information and health anxiety grew increasingly stronger as IU increased. This moderating effect of IU was not attributable to general distress. These results suggest that IU is important for better understanding the exacerbation of health anxiety in response to Internet searches for medical information. Conceptual and therapeutic implications of these results are discussed.

Cyberchondria refers to the repeated use of the Internet to search for health-related information, which leads to negative consequences. This two-part study provides the first known examination of how cyberchondria relates to (a) problematic Internet use and (b) metacognitive beliefs. Participants were U.S. community adults who reported using the Internet to search for health-related information (Study 1: N = 337, Study 2: N = 260). In Study 1, cyberchondria shared a strong association with problematic Internet use, and that association was unaccounted for by age, gender, current reported medical status, negative affect, or health anxiety. In Study 2, cyberchondria was found to share moderate to strong associations with metacognitive beliefs. The association between cyberchondria and metacognitive beliefs about the uncontrollability of thoughts remained intact after accounting for the Study 1 covariates, as well as anxiety sensitivity and intolerance of uncertainty. Neither anxiety sensitivity nor intolerance of uncertainty shared unique associations with cyberchondria. These results provide a preliminary indication that a metacognitive conceptualization of problematic Internet use may be applicable to cyberchondria.