Hypochondria
obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder characterized by excessive preoccupation with or fear of a serious illness
Hypochondriasis or hypochondria is a condition in which a person is excessively and unduly worried about having a serious illness. Hypochondria is an old concept whose meaning has repeatedly changed over its lifespan. It has been claimed that this debilitating condition results from an inaccurate perception of the condition of body or mind despite the absence of an actual medical diagnosis. An individual with hypochondriasis is known as a hypochondriac. Hypochondriacs become unduly alarmed about any physical or psychological symptoms they detect, no matter how minor the symptom may be, and are convinced that they have, or are about to be diagnosed with, a serious illness.
Often, hypochondria persists even after a physician has evaluated a person and reassured them that their concerns about symptoms do not have an underlying medical basis or, if there is a medical illness, their concerns are far in excess of what is appropriate for the level of disease. Many hypochondriacs focus on a particular symptom as the catalyst of their worrying, such as gastro-intestinal problems, palpitations, or muscle fatigue. To qualify for the diagnosis of hypochondria the symptoms must have been experienced for at least six months.
International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) classifies hypochondriasis as a mental and behavioral disorder. In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-IV-TR defines it as a somatoform disorder and one study has shown it to affect about 3% of the visitors to primary care settings.
The public source identifies “Hypochondria” as obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder characterized by excessive preoccupation with or fear of a serious illness. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hypochondria, obsessive-compulsive and spectrum.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q105434. The Library of Congress control number is sh85063763. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Hypochondria” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.