What does hypochondriasis mean?
Hypochondriasis is a term for persistent, excessive anxiety about having or developing a serious illness. It may involve repeatedly checking symptoms, seeking reassurance, consulting medical professionals, or remaining convinced that illness is present despite medical reassurance and evidence. The condition is now more commonly discussed in clinical terms as illness anxiety disorder, although the older word remains recognizable from historical literature and dictionaries. Its connotations have shifted: early medical writers used it for imagined illness, while nineteenth-century authors often treated it as a fashionable or comic personal trait. The name comes from Greek words referring to the area beneath the upper abdominal cartilages, because ancient and later medical theories connected many vague complaints with that region. Though the term can now be perceived as dated or stigmatizing, it remains useful in discussing the history of medicine and the development of modern concepts of health anxiety.
nounA condition marked by persistent and excessive anxiety about having or developing a serious illness, often despite repeated reassurance and medical evidence. Historically, the term also referred to a belief that the upper abdomen was the source of imagined physical complaints.
- Persistent, excessive anxiety about having or developing a serious illness, often accompanied by repeated checking, reassurance-seeking, or conviction that one is ill despite contrary medical evidence.
- Historically, the belief or condition in which a person imagined that they suffered from serious illness without an identifiable physical cause.
"Years of repeated health checks and fears of fatal disease transformed what had once been mild concern into hypochondriasis."
"His worsening hypochondriasis led him to seek another medical opinion almost every week."
"In nineteenth-century literature, hypochondriasis was often portrayed as a fashionable complaint attended by elaborate symptoms and constant self-observation."
The plural is uncommon because the condition is usually discussed in the singular.
"The novels portray hypochondriases that range from fashionable anxiety to profound fear of disease."
Its name literally points to the area “under the cartilage” of the upper abdomen, because ancient doctors believed many mysterious illnesses originated there.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does hypochondriasis come from?
The word comes through Latin from Greek hypokhondria, meaning “under the cartilages,” a reference to the upper abdomen. The Greek compound combines hypo, “under,” with khondria, “cartilages,” and the English suffix -iasis, used in the formation of names for conditions. Ancient medical theory placed the seat of many illnesses in the hypochondrial region, and the term later came to mean a state of imagined or excessive illness. English usage developed from these earlier medical senses into the modern concept of persistent health anxiety.
Related word forms
How hypochondriasis is actually used
In modern clinical usage, the term is largely historical; illness anxiety disorder is the usual diagnostic term for excessive fear of disease, while somatic symptom disorder is used when physical symptoms are prominent. Because “hypochondriac” can sound dismissive or stigmatizing, prefer “a person with illness anxiety” when discussing a particular individual. The older expression “male hypochondriasis” is now considered archaic and potentially misleading.
Easily confused with hypochondriasis
Hypochondria is now usually used for the condition or experience of excessive health anxiety, whereas hypochondriasis is the more specific noun naming the condition itself.
Hypochondriasis is the condition, while a hypochondriac is a person who has it, though the latter term is now sometimes regarded as derogatory.