People who worry too much about their health tend to die sooner than those who don't. recent research Found from Sweden. It seems odd that hypochondriacs, who by definition have no problem worrying, live shorter lives than other people. Let's take a closer look.
First, a word about terminology. The term “hypochondriac” is rapidly becoming pejorative. Instead, we as medical professionals recommend using this terminology. illness anxiety disorder (IAD). Therefore, this term should be used so as not to irritate more sensitive readers.
IAD can be defined as a mental health condition with the following characteristics: Excessive worry about health, there is often an unfounded belief that a serious medical condition exists. This may involve frequent visits to the doctor, or it may include avoiding the doctor altogether because of the possibility of being diagnosed with an actual, potentially fatal condition.
It seems to me that the latter variant is quite reasonable. A hospital is dangerous place And you can die in such a place.
IAD can be very debilitating. People with this condition spend a lot of time worrying and visiting clinics and hospitals.it is costs to the health care system It is highly stigmatized because of the time and diagnostic resources it uses.
Busy medical professionals want to spend their time treating people with “real symptoms,” which can often be very difficult. negative. Similarly, public.
Now, about that research.
Swedish researchers followed around 42,000 people (1,000 of whom had IAD) over 20 years. During that period, the risk of death for people with this disorder increased. (On average, those who worried died five years younger than those who worried less.) Additionally, their risk of death from both natural and unnatural causes increased. Perhaps he thinks IAD patients have something wrong with them after all.
IAD patients who died from natural causes had increased mortality from cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and unknown causes. Interestingly, they did not have increased mortality from cancer. This seems strange, so Anxiety about cancer is widespread Among this population.
The main cause of unnatural death in the IAD cohort was suicide, which increased by at least 4 times compared to those without IAD.
So how do we explain these interesting findings?
IAD is known to be strongly associated with mental illness. When the risk of suicide increases, mental illnessThis finding seems very reasonable. Add in the fact that people with IAD can feel stigmatized and ignored, and this can contribute to anxiety and depression, which in some cases can ultimately lead to suicide. .
The increased risk of death from natural causes appears difficult to explain. There may also be lifestyle factors. Alcohol, smoking and drug use more common For people with anxiety or mental disorders. It is known that such vices can shorten lifespan and contribute to increased mortality from IAD.
IAD is known to be more common in people who have family members with serious illnesses. Many serious diseases have a genetic component, so this increased mortality may have a constitutional cause. In other words, a “defective” gene shortens lifespan.
What can we learn?
Physicians need to pay attention to their patients' underlying health issues and listen to them with great care. Neglecting patients can often lead to terrible consequences. IAD patients may have hidden underlying conditions, but I admit this is an unpopular conclusion.
Perhaps this point can be illustrated with the example of a French novelist. marcel proust. Although Proust is often described by biographers as a hypochondriac, he died in 1922 at the age of 51. The average life expectancy of French people was 63 years..
He complained of numerous gastrointestinal illnesses before his death. symptoms Despite symptoms such as bloating, bloating, and vomiting, doctors could find little that was wrong.In fact, what he described is consistent with gastroparesis.
This is a condition in which gastric motility is reduced, emptying the stomach more slowly than necessary, and the stomach becomes full. This causes vomiting and the associated risk of inhaling the vomit, leading to aspiration pneumonia, and Proust is known to have died from complications of pneumonia.
Finally, a word of caution: writing about IAD can be very dangerous. The French playwright Molière wrote: Le Mallard Imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid) is a play about Argan, a hypochondriac who tries to marry his daughter to a doctor to reduce medical costs.As for Molière, he 4th performance of his work. It is dangerous to ridicule hypochondriacs.
This article is republished from conversation Under Creative Commons License.read Original work.
