Cyberchondria 294
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."
See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
mis-diagnosis (Score:5, Insightful)
They ought to be checking something else... (Score:3, Insightful)
Gloom and doom. (Score:5, Insightful)
It's easier to figure out you don't have a disease online than to be convinced you have one.
I call bullshit. (Score:-1, Insightful)
There are also advantages to this online DR. (Score:4, Insightful)
Like everything else... (Score:4, Insightful)
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
Most information is neutral--blame the users of that information.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
It's just like security -- security is better when there are humans involved to make rational decisions. It's the same with your health.
Insurance plays a role in this (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not saying insurance is a bad thing, but insurance that says "yes, you can have open heart surgery for $5" is going to affect patient behavior, no way around it.
Re:mis-diagnosis (Score:2, Insightful)
For a second opinion, one should consult another doctor--not the Internet! The only use the Internet has in a situation like this is for researching information after one has received a formal diagnosis from a doctor. People without medical degrees should not go Willy Nilly, searching the Internet, trying to diagnose their affliction, and believing that they know about their health than doctors do.
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:2, Insightful)
Ha!
Doctors (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
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:mis-diagnosis (Score:2, Insightful)
Of course, he warned against some of the more "out-there" sites that make extravagant claims. "This new patented product will make your ___ get bigger, your mind faster, your personal relationships perfect, and cure any cancer you might have"
Most people know their own bodily symptoms much better than a doctor who only sees it once a month or even less. Doctors are not God, despite playing Him on TV. They may be good, but do you know what they call the guy who graduated from medical school in last place? "Doctor"
Yup, I'm one of those... (Score:5, Insightful)
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!
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Insightful)
I'll go ahead and answer those questions for you. (It doesnt matter what the drug is)
According to the drug company's website, the drug is the best thing ever. According to the company's pre-market testing, it went better than ever.
The reason he told you not to listen to the Internet when trying to get informed about drugs is because the drug companies are in SERIOUS competition with each other and will do just about anything to get you to take their's. You go online and become concerned your doctor didnt prescribe you enough of the drug? Well then you are exactly the kind of person that this article is talking about.
I'm one (Score:2, Insightful)
And the truth is, after reading this stuff over and over and applying amateur diagnostic methods I can come up with the most hideous of diseases. Sad thing is, I can't simply run some system util to fix things. So, I slowly become more and more worried. Obsessive even.
It seems quite logical to research this stuff. But I can't suppress the urge to keep reading. And I have difficulties suppressing the worries this process induces.
Another trend... (Score:4, Insightful)
I think there's a wrong trend that sites that should not give this kind of information are the ones that are listed on top in a Google search. As usual on the internet, apply common sense first... but a lot of people read it, and if it's on a popular site... well, it must be true then of course. I did check with my uncle later on (he's a doctor) and he confirmed my research, diagnosis & cure. He also confirmed that the trend I noticed is a pain in the butt for most doctors, because a lot of people tend to think they have something dramatic (bragging rights on a tea party perhaps?) while they don't. He says consult times have a longer duration now because not only does he have to diagnose & write out a prescription if needed, but he also has to tell the patient his or her issue is not that grave.
Re:See a doctor (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Maybe there should be a page called "Healthy" (Score:5, Insightful)
Today's editorial: "That's not a wart."
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is certainly true, and there are many instances of big pharma promoting drugs for unlicensed usage, or made up [bmjjournals.com] diseases [bmjjournals.com]
The problem is not just big pharma per se, but also the way it funds special interest groups (e.g. Multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis) to campaign [bmjjournals.com] for wildly expensive drugs of dubious efficacy. This is the malignant end of astroturfing, and many of these supposedly educational sites have a message "this drug works and your doctor better give it to you".
Unfortunately these sort of 'infomercial'/'advertorial' websites do not come under any advertising control body, especially if they are produced at arms length by a 'charity/ self help group'.
I know GPs (Family Physicians) in affluent areas who spend a lot of their time fending off the 'worried well' who look up stuff on the internet. It is actually these people, rather than the true cyberchondriac (who are relatively easy to spot) who make our life difficult, as they haven't bothered to learn probability or epidemiology on their trawl through the websites.
Worse - Misdiagnosis from alternative therapists (Score:3, Insightful)
IMO, misinformation is much worse than information overload. I know a few people who go to alternative therapists pretty much exclusively and get told an amazing load of bullshit. Sure, doctors don't have all the answers and their judgement is often skewed by the pharmaceutical industry peddling new expensive drugs. But I'll take their advice over the alternative snake oil salesmen any day.
Re:Amen. (Score:4, Insightful)
Books have fueled hypochondriacs for years (Score:3, Insightful)
This isn't exactly a new problem. People have books full of diseases and stuff that can convince them they're about to die.
Loads of people in England have books like these [amazon.co.uk] which are ideal for the budding hypochondriac! A lot of them are full of flow charts that let you start out with a symptom and answer questions to find out what disease you've got. You can start out with a slight headache and be dying of diphtheria before you know it!
So basically, the problem isn't really limited to the internet, but maybe it's easier to surf the net than to crack open a book when you feel ill.
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Insightful)
Right. Humans that like golf, boats, and big houses.
I do not trust a typical doctor any more than an auto mechanic. I'm sure my mechanic doesn't want me getting online and reading about the quality differences in his OEM parts versus brand named ones, either.
Re:See a doctor (Score:2, Insightful)
MSRA= Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus
Here [cdc.gov] is a great link from the CDC. Like you said, this is the result of years of overabuse and over perscribing of antobiotics. Question for parents - If you took your child to the doctor, with a fever, and he told you "It is a virus, no need for antibiotics, just go home give him fluids and tylenol" Would you be happy? This is what contributes to these problems.People expect to be given medicine when they are sick, they cannot comprehend that the illness will run it's course. I have three teenage sons. Each of them have been on antibiotics less than 5 times. I have friends whose children get antibiotics 5-6 times a year.
We have become a society of quick fixes, if something is wrong take a pill/drug/drink and you'll feel better. We used to have a joke in the ER. You tell a patient " You have the flu, I can give you medicine and you will be better in 7 days, or you can go home and take tylenol, and drink fluids, and you will be better in a week"
Alternative medicine kooks (Score:3, Insightful)
It's really amazing how fraud is illegal, but alternative medicine gets a special pass -- and medicine is an area where one would think that we *should* have some form of tough regulation.
No. (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:Pharmaceutical Industry? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm not saying that migraine, acid reflux disease, depression, and social anxiety disorder aren't serious diseases, but because of their similarities to far less serious but more common problems, the hypochondriacs will come out in droves.
it works both ways (Score:4, Insightful)
Sorry, but I don't buy that. People with anxiety disorders always could go to the library or worry about something else.
But there is real and useful medical information on the Internet. If you worry about your risk of HIV after a sexual encounter, for example, you can find data quickly that lets you assess your risk rationally on the Internet, and that may well reduce more people's anxiety than increase it; in the past, you might have had to go to the library and go through stacks for many hours to find a simple answer, something most non-hypochondriacs would never have bothered with.
Furthermore, doctors themselves are so prone to making mistakes that having access to such a wealth of medical information on the Internet can actually save your life. I think doctors are quite unhappy that they are losing the information monopoly they traditionally enjoyed. Patients are now questioning their judgement, pointing out their mistakes, and generally are more informed. Perhaps that is the real reason why the medical community keeps raising this non-issue.
Don't You People Realize (Score:2, Insightful)
Doctors have access to all of these medical databases, too.
Now, I'm not saying that there are no idiot doctors. I'm sure that there are plenty of idiot doctors. I'm sure that there are plenty a greedy doctors. And greedy insurance plans. But really, if you go onto a health site, and I'm all in favor of everyone fully informing themselves, you're not getting exclusive information that isn't already at the fingertips of everyone in the health community. It's not like doctors memorize all of the common health conditions and screw you if you get something that's not in the top-100 list of human diseases.
A good doctor will examine you completely, run any indicated tests, and if your symptoms aren't entirely consistent with a common disease, (s)he'll refer you to someone called a specialist. This person, if also unable to diagnose your condition, really ought to refer to a researcher. If this isn't happening, that's a clue that you have a sucky doctor.
Re:Stumping doctors too (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:See a doctor (Score:4, Insightful)
It's like this. A Lian Li is a fine case. Much better than the POS I'm using for my teacher's niece's computer. But she won't be opening the case or showing it off, so it's very likely that she also wouldn't appreciate my spending a third of the cost of the machine on a fancy case.
As to your doctor, many drugs have uses they haven't actually been tested for, and so the drug company doesn't officially mention them, but most doctors know about them. A bad example would be Prozac for kids: It seems to work, and we don't see immediately why it'd be a problem, but I for one don't think it's safe. A good example would be the use of birth control to supress the menstrual cycle, which was recently approved, buthad often been done prior to that. Your doctor may know more than you do. It's hard to believe, but he did spend years and years studying. Rather than telling him his dosage is wrong, just ask him about it.
I'm like you. I'm curious, and I don't like the way medical folk don't tell you what's going on, but I've found that with an application of curiousity and a demonstration that I can keep an even keel, they'll tell me. What they're worried about mostly is that when I find out they're giving an electric shock(!~!!!!1) or prescribing a drug that hasn't been tested exactly like this, I'll freak out and call security or whatever. Most likely, your doctor saw a lawsuit in the making when you start acting like you've trapped him, so he stonewalled.
Next time, try just asking. 'Doctor, I read that the usual dosage for this is higher, so I was curious. Can you tell me a little about it?'