Are you a cyberchondriac?

Taken from MSN

As if their job wasn’t hard enough already, general practitioners are now finding themselves being inundated by patients with ‘cyberchondria’, which involves using the internet to self-diagnose, usually incorrectly, and to research quack cures. It’s hypochondria for the information generation, and more and more people are getting trapped in its net.

It’s hard to imagine what our predecessors did before the invention of the World Wide Web. With literally billions of internet pages at our fingertips, all we need to research and write an article is a laptop and a mobile phone. We could do this job from a Starbucks. But, as Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) would say, “With great power comes great responsibility”, and it seems that the great power of the internet is having a negative effect on the health and stress levels of the UK population, spawning a condition called ‘cyberchondria’.

The rise of cyberchondria, or ‘internet print-out syndrome’, is not unlike the growing popularity in DIY health kits, the only difference being it doesn’t cost the patient anything and only requires an internet connection. And, as with the rocketing popularity of DIY health kits, doctors are concerned at our eagerness to use the internet to self-diagnose an illness or condition and with our tendency to misread symptoms and automatically fear the worst case scenario.

With hundreds of websites claiming to allow the user to diagnose a range of diseases by simply filling in an online form or questionnaire, GPs' surgeries are being inundated with patients who have downloaded information about their ‘condition’ and are demanding treatments they have stumbled across on the internet. Some patients even request attention for medical conditions that don’t actually exist.

Search engines have also played a role in the spread of cyberchondria. A few words entered into a search engine instantly provide the user with a huge mix of websites, some containing useful and some offering bogus information, with which to research their condition.

Basically, it’s a form of hypochondria for the internet generation – an affliction that turns piles into bowel cancer, back pain into sciatica and headaches into a brain tumour, and it's spreading fast.

Dr Sarah Keegan, a GP based in North London, said: “When I get visited by patients I automatically assume they’ve already looked things up on the internet.”

A major problem with using the internet to get to the bottom of certain symptoms is that anyone can set up an internet health resource, and as a result a great deal of information available is either misleading or incorrect. Sites that are attached to a society or charity, or reputable organisations such as NHS Direct or Netdoctor are stringently regulated and can therefore be relied upon, whereas those set up by an individual who isn’t moderated by anyone could contain pages of medical advice that is largely incorrect.

A GP from Midlothian, Scotland, who did not want to be named, said: "I regularly see patients who are convinced they have a certain disease based on information they've printed off at home, and a lot of the time it comes from sources I've never come across in my life and certainly wouldn't trust.

"Even if it is from a regulated source, sometimes the information is designed for health professionals and is therefore difficult for the person on the street to interpet correctly."

Even more worrying is the online availability of products and drugs that are, usually for good reason, not available or even legal in the UK. Unregulated sellers of pharmaceuticals, who have no awareness of patient history or possible side-effects and don’t seem to care that certain drugs, such as viagra, need to be used under certain conditions, are a particular danger to patients.

The Midlothian GP continues: "Patients frequently ask for a drug or treatment that they've read about on the internet but isn't available in the UK, and, though of course we won't give it to them, it's worrying that they can just go and buy it over the internet from abroad."

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency has the authority to shut down websites selling prescription-only medicines that are based in the UK, but is powerless to regulate those working from overseas.

Another major problem with medical information available on the internet is that it tends to play to a patient’s worst fears. A cyberchondriac will read a list of what possible symptoms could mean, and automatically assume that their’s is the worse case scenario.

Our Midlothian source adds: "Quite often a list of minor symptoms can be put together to form a checklist for a much more serious condition, and if a person believes they have a few of these symptoms, their mind starts to convince them they must have this terrible illness, and they even start to believe they have some of the symptoms they don't."

It’s not all bad news, however. The internet can actually play a positive role in the lives of patients after they have been properly diagnosed with a disease or condition, providing them with information, support and, ultimately, comfort. The internet can also be used to provide instant answers to questions a patient may be too afraid or embarrassed to ask their GP – just so long as the source is reputable and those answers are correct.

The Midlothian GP said: "The internet can be a brilliant resource for people who know what's wrong with them. For example, if a patient is diagnosed with breast cancer, then if they know where to look then there is a wealth of valuable information available on the internet that can help them understand their illness and prepare themselves for the treatment that lies ahead."

What's more, although a growing number of people are referencing the internet before visiting their GP, a lot of them still seem to be more likely to take on board advice that comes from a doctor's mouth rather than a computer screen. Dr Keegan adds: "I’ve never had an occasion when a patient has argued with me on the basis of what they’ve read online”

Diagnosing a disease or an illness is never as easy as answering a few questions online. As far as medical advice on the internet is concerned, quality control is impossible, although if used wisely, its “great power” can still be used to our advantage. There's no doubt, however, that to get the right answers there is no substitute for seeing your GP.