From hypochondrium to hypochondria.

Abstract

According to Galen of Pergamon (129–ca. 216), Greek physician Diocles of Carystus (ca 375 BCE–ca. 295 BCE) (Smith 1867, 1011), a pupil of Hippocrates of Kos (ca. 460 BCE–ca. 370 BCE), was the author of the first treatise of (animal) anatomy (Jouanna 1992, 435). But he is mostly credited with a very early description of a kind of gastritis that would be today considered a symptom of hypochondria (Wintrebert 2009, 44). Although retrospective medical diagnosis must always be taken warily, especially when the supposed disease is considered a psychological/psychiatric disorder, it seems that the concept—if not the term—of hypochondria dates back many centuries. Among celebrities of the early first millenium to have been recently diagnosed as probably suffering from hypochondria, one can mention Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca (ca. 4 BCE–65 CE), who has been described as a “malade imaginaire” (Courtil 2012) and even as the “greatest hypochondriac of the Antiquity” (Russell 1973, 80). Others include Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121–180; see Whitemore 1977), the Greek orator Publius Aelius Aristides Theodorus (117–181), and Byzantine Archbishop Theophylact of Ohrid (ca. 1050–ca. 1107; see Jouanno 2002).