ArticleWiener medizinische Wochenschrift (1946)2020
General practitioners' challenges and strategies in dealing with Internet-related health anxieties-results of a qualitative study among primary care physicians in Germany.
Article in Wiener medizinische Wochenschrift (1946), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- Physician Perspectives on Internet-Informed Patients: Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Trends in the Implementation of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale: Bibliometric Analysis.JMIR mental health · 2026Article
- Cyberchondria and complexity: a systems-level exploration of anxiety and informational instability in the digital age.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- eHealth Literacy and Trust in Health Information Sources.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Somatoform Disorders in Primary Care-An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Study on Experiences, Challenges and Coping Strategies of General Practitioners in the Federal Republic of Germany.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2024Article
- Diagnostic Performance of an App-Based Symptom Checker in Mental Disorders: Comparative Study in Psychotherapy Outpatients.JMIR mental health · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Time and again, it is discussed that in medical practices, the number of patients who develop health anxieties due to extensive health information searches on the Internet is increasing. The objective of this study is to explore and describe general practitioners' experiences and attitudes towards cyberchondria patients as well as strategies to stabilize affected patients. Following a qualitative approach, oral personal semi-standardized interviews with general practitioners (N = 38) in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, were conducted in 2019. In the course of a content analysis, one can see that most interviewees see the emergence of Internet-related health anxieties as an increasing problem in everyday care. Affected patients not only show marked levels of doubt and nervousness as well as hypersensitivity to their own state of health, but also low confidence in the physician. In addition to compliance-related difficulties, the high need for advice and the demand for further diagnostics are regarded as major problems. Various approaches were identified by which general practitioners respond to unsettled patients (more consultation time, recommendation of reputable websites, information double-checking, expanded history questionnaire, additional psychosocial training).
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