Hypochondriac dies sooner than someone who doesn’t care about their health – 12/28/2023 – Balance and Health

People who worry excessively about their health tend to die earlier than those who don’t, a recent study in Sweden concluded.

It seems strange that hypochondriacs — who by definition worry more, but don’t necessarily have health problems — have a shorter life expectancy than the rest of the population. But let’s understand why.

First, a little about the terminology. The term “hypochondriac” is quickly becoming pejorative, and so doctors are encouraged to use illness anxiety disorder. Therefore, we will use this expression throughout the text.

This disorder can be defined as a mental health condition characterized by excessive concern about one’s health, usually with the unfounded belief that one suffers from a serious medical condition.

People with this diagnosis may make frequent visits to the doctor or may avoid them altogether, claiming that a real and very possibly fatal condition could be diagnosed.

This last argument seems very rational to me. A hospital is a dangerous place and it is possible to die in a place like this.

Illness anxiety disorder can be very debilitating. A person with this condition will spend a lot of time worrying and visiting clinics and hospitals.

It is expensive for healthcare systems due to the time and diagnostic resources used, as well as being quite stigmatizing.

Busy healthcare professionals prefer to spend time treating people with “real illnesses” and can often be quite dismissive. So do the people around the patient.

The study

Swedish researchers followed around 42,000 people (of which 1,000 suffered from the disorder) over two decades.

During this period, people with the disorder were at increased risk of death.

On average, those who were most concerned about their health died five years younger than those who were least concerned.

Furthermore, the risk of death has increased from both natural and non-natural causes.

People with the disorder who died of natural causes had higher mortality from cardiovascular, respiratory and unknown causes. Interestingly, no increased cancer mortality was observed.

This fact is curious because the anxiety generated by the fear of cancer is very widespread in this population.

The main cause of unnatural death in the group with the disorder was suicide, with a rate at least four times higher than that observed among those who did not suffer from the disorder.

How are these findings explained?

It is known that illness anxiety disorder has a strong association with psychiatric disorders. Given that the risk of suicide increases with psychiatric illnesses, such a conclusion seems quite reasonable.

Added to this is the fact that patients can feel stigmatized and disregarded, and this can contribute to anxiety and depression, ultimately leading to suicide in some cases.

The increased risk of death from natural causes is more difficult to explain.

Factors such as lifestyle can be part of the process. The use of alcohol, tobacco and drugs is more common in anxious people and people with psychiatric disorders.

It is known that these addictions can limit longevity and, therefore, contribute to increased mortality.

The disorder is also more common among people with family members who have had serious illnesses.

Since many serious illnesses have a genetic component, life expectancy may be reduced due to “faulty” genes.

What can we learn?

Doctors must be aware of patients’ underlying health problems and listen more carefully.

When we disregard our patients, we can often be surprised.

It’s entirely possible that people with illness anxiety disorder have a hidden underlying condition.

Perhaps we can illustrate this point with the case of the French novelist Marcel Proust.

He is often described by his biographers as a hypochondriac, but he died in 1922, aged 51, at a time when French life expectancy was 63 years.

Throughout his life, he complained of various gastrointestinal symptoms, such as extreme satiety, bloating, and vomiting, but his doctors could find nothing wrong. In fact, the symptoms are consistent with gastroparesis.

This is a condition in which the mobility of the stomach is reduced and it empties more slowly than it should, making the person feel too full.

The condition can cause vomiting and, as a result, there is a risk of inhaling the vomit, which causes aspiration pneumonia. And it is known that Proust died from complications of pneumonia.

Finally, a warning: writing about this disorder can be quite risky.

French playwright Molière wrote “Le Malade Imaginaire” (“The Imaginary Sick Man”), a play about a hypochondriac named Argan who tries to get his daughter to marry a doctor to reduce his medical bills.

As for Molière, he died after the fourth production of his work. Mock hypochondriacs if you want, but at your own risk.

*Stephen Hughes is senior lecturer in medicine at Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom

*This article was published on The Conversation and reproduced here under a Creative Commons license. Click here to read the original version.