Cyberchondria: Too Much Information for the Health Anxious Patient?

Cyberchondria, a term which was recently coined and popularized by the media, is receiving more and more attention from the medical community as consumers become increasingly reliant on online health information for symptom checking and self-diagnosis. This column provides a background to the term, discusses the pivotal role which health anxiety can play in online health information seeking, and profiles a number of high-quality online symptom checkers as a way to help alleviate cyberchondria.