Are You a Cyberchondriac? Nothing makes a health care provider cringe faster than the patient who says, "I think I must have diagnosis X because that’s what it says on the internet." "Why do patients come to see me if they already "know" what they have?" one doctor asked me. "Why do they think I bothered going to medical school if it’s so easy for them to diagnose themselves?" He was right, of course. While the internet can be a powerful learning tool for health and medical information, it can also be dangerous when its information is translated incorrectly. The term "cyberchondriac" was coined to describe people who use the web to support their self-diagnosed fantasies of dread diseases and chronic symptoms. They get a twinge here, or a sniffle there, then they run to the internet to look up their symptoms. The next thing you know, they have diagnosed themselves with cancer. But that’s the key to the problem -- SELF-diagnosis. When we begin to experience symptoms that seem strange to us, it’s human nature to want to know what’s causing them. Easy access to information makes it too simple to punch in a few keywords, then come away with a result. My recommendation? Don’t do it. At least not at first. There are too many variables that make it almost impossible for you to diagnose yourself accurately. Let your doctor diagnose you instead. She is trained to assess your history and symptoms, order tests to confirm or contradict, and use her experience and expertise to arrive at an accurate diagnosis. Those are skills you don’t have, no matter how astute you are with a search engine. Yes, it’s possible your doctor will have trouble arriving at a diagnosis. It’s even possible your doctor will be wrong. If so, then you can use the internet to review alternatives so you can partner with your doctor to arrive at a valid conclusion. Once you have a doctor’s diagnosis, then by all means, use the internet to learn everything you can about both the diagnosis and your treatment options. Your patience will pay off because you will have your doctor’s insights as a starting point. Cyberchondria is a word for our times. I hope you won’t get caught in the self-diagnosis web! A sharp patient knows to let the doctor do her job, and to use the internet later to expand his knowledge. Want to talk about this column?
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~ © 2007 Trisha Torrey | 
