Has the pandemic aggravated cyberchondria?

I remember holding a workshop on emotional well-being for pregnant women in 2013. One concern that topped the list was the anxiety triggered by the internet when they tried to look for information on common symptoms experienced in pregnancy. One of the women mentioned that she had looked up the internet to understand “when can you really feel the baby’s movement?” She panicked when she read the information online; she couldn’t feel any movement. Whether it’s headaches, weakness or nosebleed, people search the internet for a diagnosis and end up in a downward spiral of anxiety as they chance upon information which points towards illnesses that are chronic or require intense treatment. Ophthalmologist Niro Narendran describes cyberchondria as “the unfounded escalation of concerns about common symptoms based on the material that the patient has found on the internet”.