Nosophobia

Nosophobia
SpecialtyPsychiatry

Nosophobia, also known as disease phobia[1] or illness anxiety disorder,[2] is the irrational fear of contracting a disease, a type of specific phobia. Primary fears of this kind are fear of contracting HIV infection (AIDS phobia or HIV serophobia),[3] pulmonary tuberculosis (phthisiophobia),[4] sexually transmitted infections (syphilophobia or venereophobia),[5] cancer (carcinophobia), heart diseases (cardiophobia[6]), COVID-19 (coronaphobia), and catching the common cold or flu.

The word nosophobia comes from the Greek νόσος nosos for "disease" and φόβος, phobos, "fear".[7]

  1. ^ Sirri, Laura; Grandi, Silvana (2012). "Illness Behavior". The Psychosomatic Assessment. Advances in Psychosomatic Medicine. 32: 160–181. doi:10.1159/000330015. ISBN 978-3-8055-9854-5. PMID 22056904.
  2. ^ "What Is Nosophobia?". WebMD. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  3. ^ Mariner WK (November 1995). "AIDS phobia, public health warnings, and lawsuits: deterring harm or rewarding ignorance?". American Journal of Public Health. 85 (11): 1562–8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.85.11.1562. PMC 1615706. PMID 7485674.
  4. ^ Riva MA, Ploia PR, Rocca S, Cesana G (September 2013). ""Phthisiophobia": the difficult recognition of transmission of tuberculosis to health care workers". La Medicina del Lavoro. 104 (5): 359–67. PMID 24180084.
  5. ^ Janssen, Diederik F. (2020). "Noddle Pox: Syphilis and the Conception of Nosomania/Nosophobia (c. 1665–c. 1965)". Canadian Bulletin of Medical History. 37 (2). University of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress): 319–359. doi:10.3138/cbmh.432-032020. ISSN 0823-2105. PMID 32822549. S2CID 221239420.
  6. ^ Eifert GH (July 1992). "Cardiophobia: a paradigmatic behavioural model of heart-focused anxiety and non-anginal chest pain". Behaviour Research and Therapy. 30 (4): 329–45. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(92)90045-I. PMID 1616469.
  7. ^ "What Is Fear of Getting Sick (Nosophobia)?". clevelandclinic.org. cleveland clinic. 2022-03-15. Retrieved 2022-08-31. The word nosophobia originates from the Greek words for disease, nosos, and fear, phobos.