Anxiety sensitivity, uncertainty and recursive thinking: A continuum on Cyberchondria conditions during the Covid Outbreak

Abstract

Background. Cyberchondria is a term used to refer to excessive surfing the web looking for health care information, excessive checking behavior being related to health-related anxiety. This period of quarantine for the Covid-19 pandemic is increasing the pathological use of the internet, and the excessive surfing the web looking for health care information. Another dimension related to the Covid-19 outbreak refers to uncertainty intolerance, for this reason being necessary for the healthcare professionals to provide clear and linear information. Aim. The aim of this review is to identify the psychological correlations connected to cyberchondria in the quarantine period. Methods. Following the PRISMA guidelines, we carried out a systematic review of the literature on PubMed. The terms used for the search were “Cyberchondria” OR “Anxiety” AND “Quarantine”. Results. As resulting from the reviewed literature, there is a relationship between anxiety for one’s own state of health and cyberchondria, with negative psychological effects of quarantine, including post-traumatic stress symptoms, depression, anxiety, low mood, irritability, insomnia, uncertainty, emotional exhaustion, this condition being associated with hypervigilance, and catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily signs. Conclusion. In the light of this and according to the literature, it would be desirable that research can further explore the factors influencing the increase in cyberchondria in the future.

Who Believes in Fake News: A Study on the Relationship between Affective Temperament, Cyberchondria and Problematic Use of the Internet during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Consistent with the findings of previous studies [2,16] we reported an increase in cyberchondria, depression, stress, low mood, anxious mood, during the Covid outbreak, and internet plays a vital role in everyday life in this period, because it has become refers to the existence of a popular source of accessing health related information. According to studies women seem to be more afraid of Covid but few are vaccinated in our sample; this can correlate with the distrust in the medical staff subscale CSS (mistrust) [9].…”

“…According to scientific literature [2], we found that affective temperaments directly correlate with the problematic use of the Internet and fear of Covid correlates with the problematic use of the Internet and cyclothymic, anxious, irritable, depressive temperaments. Cyberchondria correlates with problematic use of the internet and cyclothymic, anxious, depressive, and irritable temperaments.…”

“…This condition has been associated with various psychological consequences; for example, Cyberchondria, social media fatigue, and propagation of fake news [1]. People through misinformed on social media, exacerbated fears of COVID-19 [2]. This misinformation regarding the pandemic period has had disastrous effects on people; this misinformation produced an excess of information and an epidemic (infodemic).…”

“…This misinformation regarding the pandemic period has had disastrous effects on people; this misinformation produced an excess of information and an epidemic (infodemic). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the global effect of a pandemic is infodemic information, a term that is used to indicate the abundance of information, is not always accurate, and people have open access to information due internet connectivity ad mass media [2,3]. This overload of information, many fake, can increased anxiety and stress.…”

“…It Is possible to identify various factors that can take a protective or risky role in the tendency to believe fake news, such as young age and a lower level of culture [9,10]. Previous studies showed that fear of Corona Virus disease had been associated with problematic social media use and cyberchondria, higher levels of health anxiety, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, and somatic symptoms [2]. In light of this, this study aimed to measure the characteristics of fear and anxiety of COVID-19, the generalized approach to online searching and the use of the Internet about the perception of health, during a pandemic.…”