The Hypochondriacs Among Us Die Earlier

"It's kind of a paradoxical finding isn't it? They [hypochondriacs] worry so much about health and death, and then they end up having a higher risk of death anyway."

"They experience a lot of suffering and hopelessness."

"There's a tendency to perhaps debase their worries about their health as being made up."

David Mataix-Cols, research neuroscience and psychiatry professor, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

A recent study out of Sweden, published in the JAMA Psychiatry journal last month concluded that people diagnosed with hypochondriasis were 84 percent likelier than those free of the disorder, to die of many health disorders, particularly those related to heart, blood and lung diseases. Throw in for good measure, death by suicide. Researchers in Sweden undertook a study of people with and without hypochondiasis, a diagnosis given to people paranoid over their health. (Hypochondriases, is identified also as illness anxiety disorder.)

 

 Research previously independently undertaken found that those diagnosed with mental disorders are more likely to die younger than those without the afflictions. Which led Dr. Mataix-Cols to ponder whether that situation of early death might apply as well to people with hypochondria, which prompted him to research the matter. Even if doctors assure people diagnosed with hypochondriasis that they're quite healthy, these patients remain in a paranoid condition and their Internet searches only make them more so.

Leading the professor of neuroscience and psychiatry to begin gathering data from Swedish census and health databases from the years 1997 to 2020 from which his team of researchers identified 4,129 individuals diagnosed with hypochondriasis, then set about comparing each of these people against a group of ten without hypochondriasis. What they had in common was sex, birth year and country of residence. Some nine months of observation later 268 hypochondriacs and 1,762 people without hypochondriasis had died, with the hypochondriacs dying about five years earlier on average than those without the disorder.

Other associated observations were that having the condition of hypochondriasis impacts quality of life, to the extent that those without the malady tended to achieve higher education, to marry, and to earn higher salaries in their employment field than hypochondriacs. The risks of death due to the disorder, stated Dr. Mataix-Cols, could be higher still, when accounting for a high suspected number of undiagnosed cases. 

Professor Mataix-Cols has a few theories of his own, that hypochondriacs' lives could be truncated as a result of chronic stress. They might self-medicate with alcohol and drugs, and some patients might take to avoiding doctors' appointments for fear of an unwanted diagnosis with a serious illness. More attention and resources, he feels, should be invested in caring for those with hypochondriasis, treatable through cognitive behavioural therapy and antidepressant medication.

"We have good treatments, and most people don't get them", he added.

A large Swedish study, published Dec. 13, 2023, in JAMA Psychiatry, has uncovered a paradox about people diagnosed with an excessive fear of serious illness: They tend to die earlier than people who aren’t hypervigilant about health concerns. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)