Cyberchondria

Makarand writes "According to this article in the San Francisco Chronicle the ever-expanding wealth of health information online is keeping hypochondriacs constantly worried. With websites devoted to every major and esoteric illness and search engines coming up with many disease possibilities when you type in a symptom, it is becoming very easy for the health-anxious to believe that they have a disease. Many continue poring through the easily available medical information even after their doctors have given them a clean bill of health."

Comments

See a doctor

[agm]

If you are concerned about something health related the best advice I can give is DON'T LOOK ON THE INTERNET and see a doctor. Doctors vists are a great way to get piece of mind, which IMO is well worth the cost/hassle.

Re:See a doctor

[ptolemu]

I for one am quite paranoid when it comes to my health and refuse to search the Internet for this very reason. I have to admit though that it can just as easily have the opposite effect. But really, the best thing to do is ask someone with medical knowledge, it really is the only thing that has taken my mind off of worrying about benign symptoms.

Re:See a doctor

[Snad]

Doctors vists are a great way to get [peace] of mind, which IMO is well worth the cost/hassle.

Whilst that's undoubtedly true, a lot of (mostly male) people are reluctant to visit their doctor, for a number of reasons. For men it usually comes down to macho "I'm fine, really" attitudes, whereas for women it's often due to them being uncomfortable discussing certain issues with (perhaps) their male doctor.

Personally I did research a minor health issue I had before visiting my doctor and was gratified to find I was right with my own amateur diagnosis. That doesn't mean I sit in my darkened plastic bubble breathing filtered air and spend all day on the internet finding exotic and fascinating diseases I can convince myself I have.

I believe this "cyberchondria" is like all other internet-afflicted problems. Those who are already prone to certain mental attitudes will simply use the internet to go overboard. Whether that's researching health matters, looking at porn, or surfing Slashdot all day is largely irrelevant. There will always be a small percentage of people who have an addictive personality. The rest of us will continue to find the [health information/porn/Slashdot] useful without getting psychotic about it.

Re:See a doctor

[Robert1]

Oh god. Yes the doctor is part of a vast conspiracy to screw you out of money.

Could you have thought that maybe, just maybe, he really did care about making you feel better, and perhaps that's why he was doing his job?

So his dosage was low, maybe in his experience such a dosage works fine, or whatever you had was unique enough for him to lack an encyclopedic knownowledge of. He's only human and can't possibly know everything or keep up with every drug out there.

Seriously, not everything is a conspiracy, people are just human.

Re:See a doctor

[spectecjr]

If you are concerned about something health related the best advice I can give is DON'T LOOK ON THE INTERNET and see a doctor. Doctors vists are a great way to get piece of mind, which IMO is well worth the cost/hassle.

Doctors can also be (pick several):

1. Only Human, not Omnipotent AllSeeing DemiGods.
2. Overworked.
3. Reduced to a 15 minute visit per person, max - when the average visit used to be a much larger figure only 20 years ago.
4. Not always up on the latest research and/or information.
5. Quick to dismiss other possibilities after arriving at a single conclusion, even if other evidence presents itself.

Analyzing the data effectively can give you an edge over a doctor. You know your body. You know how it should work. Just be comprehensive in your analysis, and don't leave anything out.

I was once diagnosed with tendonitis. The actual cause of the problems I was experiencing was a small boil in my armpit (due to using antiperspirants). The lump was pressing against a nerve, giving all of the same symptoms as tendonitis (the nerves are quite exposed there). Several visits later, and I diagnose the problem myself. A short course of antibiotics later, and the problem was completely gone.

Another example:

I was diagnosed with borderline sleep apnea by a sleep medicine center. I was waking up with severe headaches every morning, and had a wildly variable sleep cycle. The idea would have been to go on a CPAP machine, and see if I got better.

What was the real problem?

I'm sensitive to caffeine. I don't get the jitters or get hyper - I just get anxious. I metabolise it so quickly that in my sleep, I'd be undergoing caffeine withdrawal. That was what the headaches were. I cut out caffeine, and everything's fine now. I'm much more confident, happier, and have *no* headaches when I wake up.

Doctors aren't infallible. If they were, they'd be magicians. They're not - they're just human. Treat them accordingly.

mis-diagnosis

[noelo]

But sometimes doctors are wrong and mis-diagnose problems. If someone believes that they have a problem well then they can research it before looking for a second opinion

Gloom and doom.

[blair1q]

It's easier to figure out you don't have a disease online than to be convinced you have one.

There are also advantages to this online DR.

[LinuxBSDNotSCO]

I see their point in the negitive side of online medical documentation but we must also see the benifit. Dr. Sam Gidding's papers on colesteral helped me lower mine with out having to spen hundreds of dollars on an RD. I see the negitives but I feel the positives greatly out weigh them.

Like everything else...

[soapbox]

Hey, information can be used in many ways. Providing it makes it easier for regular people to really learn, and for paranoiacs to dive deeper into their (mis)perceptions of ill physical health.

On the other hand, with all we know, it's hard for any doctor to just say "you're fine!" and know that it's a fact. I'm sure many of us have had a problem (and please, let's not list them on /.) that either baffled a doctor or a series of doctors; perhaps some issues remain unresolved. But let's not shoot the messenger. Providing information about making bombs and providing information that drives hypochondriacs deeper into their sickness are the same thing.

Most information is neutral--blame the users of that information.

Doctors

[AvengerXP]

"Many continue poring through the easily available medical information even after their doctors have given them a clean bill of health."

And they should, because doctors can't differenciate a Headache from Meningitis if they caught it contagiously and then they died from it. Seriously, a 2 minute talk with a doctor and i can get out of there with about any brand of pills i actually researched a little. For example.

"Hey doc, i'm having panic attacks, do you think i should get Rivotril? My friend's friend used to have those, and she said it works well."

"Sure, here have these, take X per X hours/days"

"Thanks doc"

2 minutes. Only 2. It's come more to social charisma contests than actual diagnostics. Not to mention about doctors who dont even try anymore. You have panic disorder? Try some Morphine.

Yup, I'm one of those...

[Vincman]

Interesting that it comes up now, because after reading about Asperger Syndrome in this Slashdot-article a few days ago, I actually went to an AS-support group and asked whether I had it. Embarrassing, I know. Luckily the people on the forum turned out to be quite friendly and as it turns out my symptoms are more related to a mild case of social phobia.
If something is wrong with a person, the internet can serve as a useful tool during the initial information-finding phase. The unguided nature of the internet does carry the risk of misidentifying or imagining diseases or conditions. It should therefore never be used as a substitute for professional help!

Maybe there should be a page called "Healthy"

[nounderscores]

It just contains pictures and information about what your body would look like and act like if it was normal. This means it has gross pictures of things that people would get alarmed at if they didn't know it was normal.

Today's editorial: "That's not a wart."

Re:Amen.

[Anonymous Coward]

Perhaps an antihistamine or a corticosteroid? Do you have any idea what an allergy is? Immune response times n -- the resin from poison ivy causes an allergic reaction (it is not "toxic" to the body, just causes this reaction -- remember that certain people are immune to poison ivy). Calming the immune system down with antihistamines or corticosteroids, depending on the severity of pruritic dermatitis is quite advisable depending on the situation. If your child had taken the course prescribed by the physician, he would have been all right. You are the classic case of the cyberchondriac -- 8 years of schooling, plus n years of residency and another n years of practice experience differentiate you from the MD.

No.

[The Tyro]

What the doctor was trying to do was treat your son's poison ivy by attacking the mechanism by which it is mediated.

You DID know that poison ivy is a hypersensitivity reaction, didn't you? Your own immune system causes the rash and symptoms. The rash of Poison Ivy is caused by a delayed, type IV hypersensitivity reaction (cell-mediated) to the oil of one of several species in the Toxicodendron genus. There is no way to treat poison ivy, except to temporarily suppress that particular immune response, often with steroids or other drugs. Then again, you could just wait... as you discovered. Poison ivy goes away if you give it enough time... but I can't tell you the number of people I see who demand that I do something about their symptoms right now.

If your son had a bad enough case that he was sent to a dermatologist, then your doctor may have been right on the money.

You have every right to do what you did... but don't accuse your doctor of malpractice; you're indicting him on an issue you clearly don't understand. You are exactly the type of person they are referring to in this article.

Then again, if we didn't have AC's talking smack, this wouldn't be slashdot.