Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Psychiatry. May 19, 2026; 16(5): 115088
Published online May 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i5.115088
Published online May 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i5.115088
Medical mistrust and its association with cyberchondria: A cross-sectional study among Lebanese adults
Nariman Salem, Department of Anesthesiology, Beirut Arab University, Beirut 0000, Beyrouth, Lebanon
Joudi El Wazze, Rawan Jalloul, Hussein Kaddoura, Siham Kaddoura, Ali Mansour, Ali Msheik, Atef Salame Nasreddine, Ali Zaiour, Issa Zalzali, Department of Internal Medicine, Beirut Arab University, Beirut 0000, Beyrouth, Lebanon
Lynn Nasr, Department of Psychiatry, Saint George University of Beirut, Beirut 1100, Beyrouth, Lebanon
Author contributions: Salem N contributed to the project administration; El Wazze J contributed to the visualization; Salame Nasreddine A contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript; Mansour A contributed to the formal analyses; Zaiour A contributed to the resources; El Wazze J and Mansour A contributed to the data interpretation; Jalloul R and Kaddoura S contributed to writing the original draft; Jalloul R, Kaddoura S, and Msheik A contributed to the data curation; El Wazze J, Jalloul R, and Kaddoura H contributed to the literature review; Salem N, Kaddoura S, Salame Nasreddine A, and Nasr L contributed to the conceptualization; Salem N, Mansour A, and Nasr L contributed to the methodology; Kaddoura S, Kaddoura H, Mansour A, Msheik A, and Zalzali I contributed to the data collection; Salem N, Salame Nasreddine A, and Nasr L contributed to the supervision; Salem N, El Wazze J, Jalloul R, Kaddoura H, Kaddoura S, Mansour A, Msheik A, Zaiour A, Zalzali I, and Nasr L contributed to the writing, review, and editing of the manuscript; All authors contributed to the interpretation of the findings, revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content, and approved the final version.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the institutional review board of Beirut Arab University (Approval No. FWA00019120).
Informed consent statement: Electronic informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to their enrolment in the study. Participation was voluntary, and all responses were collected anonymously.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to privacy and confidentiality restrictions but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Corresponding author: Lynn Nasr, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Saint George University of Beirut, Ashrafieh, Beirut 1100, Beyrouth, Lebanon. lynnasr@proton.me
Received: October 13, 2025
Revised: November 22, 2025
Accepted: February 5, 2026
Published online: May 19, 2026
Processing time: 204 Days and 2.1 Hours
Revised: November 22, 2025
Accepted: February 5, 2026
Published online: May 19, 2026
Processing time: 204 Days and 2.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This study explored the relationship between medical mistrust and cyberchondria among Lebanese adults. A significant positive correlation was identified, indicating that individuals with higher medical mistrust scores were more likely to exhibit severe cyberchondria behaviors. Previous medical errors, mental health conditions, and vaccine hesitancy were key contributing factors. Addressing patient physician communication and restoring trust in healthcare systems may help mitigate excessive online health-information seeking and improve health outcomes.