Nosophobia is a fear of having a disease = illness anxiety.
Hypochondria is
Features:
(1) The person investigates signs or symptoms on the Internet.
(2) The person believes that he or she has a condition identified on the Internet.
(3) The person becomes very anxious as a result.
(4) Either the person does not have a significant health problem, or does not have the problem that he or she is worried about.
(5) The person persists in the erroneous beliefs despite contradictory evidence.
Risk factors:
(1) The person has a pre-existing hypochondria or anxiety disorder.
(2) The person is unable to distinguish between reliable and unreliable information.
(3) The person selects sources of information that give misleading information.
(4) The person fails to perform a “reality check”, sometime due to distrust of physicians or other authority figures.
Differential diagnosis:
(1) A person with a medical condition, who correctly identifies the condition as a result of research on the Internet.
(2) A person with a medical condition, who misidentifies the condition as a result of research on the Internet.
