Cyberchondira is real. So is Wikipedia certitude and the vast range of disinformation that litters cyberspace.
ProgressiveTroll
· 1 year ago
I don't know if I have cyberchondria, but I'm very thankful for the internet. I learned I was misdiagnosed and now I'm living a much better life.
Brian
· 1 year ago
PT, Im very happy that it helped, but I have to tell you you are the exception. But again, I'm happy it worked for you.
Brian
· 1 year ago
I work as a PA in the ER, and while I appreciate people being "educated" on their issue, it oftens does more harm than good. Besides stretching the resources of our dept for non-emergencies, these people rarely accept the diagnoses they are given. Then they "doc-shop" till they find some quack who will either operate or medicate.
woodka
· 1 year ago
I tend to do a lot of self diagnosis and am pretty accurate. I get a bit annoyed now when doctors won't use the technical terms with me. Most of them appreciate having an informed patient, though.
PeerOne
· 1 year ago
In my experience, trying to self-diagnose is always a bit fruitless. However, if you've been given some kind of diagnosis, and THEN do some online research on a reputable site (i.e. adam dot com or mayo clinic?), teh internets can be helpful and supplementary. Supplementary being the key word here.
MaudGonne
· 1 year ago
Is cyberchondria a "nice" word?? Is it now a disease to educate yourself?? Is knowing a little more about medicine a threat to the medical establishment?? Will we need fewer diagnostic tests if we know a little more about our symptoms? Couldn't having an informed clientele be considered a cost-cutting breakthrough???
Webster
· 1 year ago
I don't have cyberchondria, thank all the golden goddesses, but I don't have any health insurance either--so my only recourse, when things go wrong is to consult with "Dr. Google." And I'm glad that there's somewhere to go to find out what may be wrong.
urizon
· 1 year ago
Cool!
Maybe, after that, they can do some research as to why their software sucks.
Older_Wiser
· 1 year ago
I only supplement a diagnosis on the web, such as the squamos cell cancer I had recently removed. What I couldn't find was a cause.
Meanwhile, the elder Mrs. Boosh is in hospital...for a perforated ulcer. I always knew she was anal retentive...
Captain Frogbert
· 1 year ago
And yet we, as a society, continue to promote diagnosis and prescribing solutions via television commercial. A list of vague symptoms and sad-looking people followed by happy people and a mumbled bit of fair balance info leads too many people to march into their doctor's offices and demand the latest miracle whatever pill.
Cyberchondria may be real, but a bigger problem is telediagnosis.
Charles2
· 1 year ago
Yes, let's please get medical commercials off the air. Imagine the wasted giga-$ on advertising that could go into further R&D.
And while we're wishing for ponies: can we get the lawyers' ads off the air too? I remember when both of these were illegal... no yelling lawyers and no "four-hour e r e c t i o n s" either.
Jeff King
· 1 year ago
I'll wish for that pony!
John
· 1 year ago
It would be interesting if the research compared these type of searches in the US which has lousy health care access and the rest of the industrialized world that has the evil socialized medicine, but good access for everyone. Of course checking the web first is what you would do if you are a US citizen with poor acce$$ to health care.
bunnyjump
· 1 year ago
I don't know if this is a result of the internet. IMO it's more that people of "authority" don't like being questioned. I was diagnosed with breast calcifications and was sent to a recommended surgeon with the film.The surgeon's nurse took the films that I brought and told me to disrobe for an exam, which I thought odd because nothing could be detected topically...you had to view the film to see. I declined and asked to speak to the surgeon first. When he came in, he was miffed because I wouldn't submit to a breast exam. And he started asking me the usual inane medical history (which was right in front of him since I had been going to that facility for 15+ years). He said he had to do a breast exam. I asked him if he had viewed the films I brought....he hadn't and he was visibly pissed that I caught him on it. He then told me that calcifications were usually pre-cancerous. I left and found another surgeon.
Brad
· 1 year ago
I would not frequent a doctor who discouraged me from integrating reality on my own. I would be suspicious of their motives.
I would not take a drug or submit to a surgery for a non-emergency condition before seeking out a way to actually become whole by giving my tissue-systems building blocks of nutrition, and clearing out blockages. Nutrition and detoxification.
This is not medical advice. I am not a doctor.
Doctors can be invisibly lazy, duped by drug companies, and earn a good living.
Jeff King
· 1 year ago
As a recently retired MD (30 long years in family practice), I can say with some authority that most doctors don't want to take the extra time to answer questions, and tend to feel annoyed or threatened by people who do their own research, quite apart from whether the quality of the information is good or bad.
And if you not only ask questions but dare to actually question the diagnosis, you are well on the way to being a "problem patient."
All Comments
Is it now a disease to educate yourself??
Is knowing a little more about medicine a threat to the medical establishment??
Will we need fewer diagnostic tests if we know a little more about our symptoms?
Couldn't having an informed clientele be considered a cost-cutting breakthrough???
Maybe, after that, they can do some research as to why their software sucks.
Meanwhile, the elder Mrs. Boosh is in hospital...for a perforated ulcer. I always knew she was anal retentive...
Cyberchondria may be real, but a bigger problem is telediagnosis.
And while we're wishing for ponies: can we get the lawyers' ads off the air too? I remember when both of these were illegal... no yelling lawyers and no "four-hour e r e c t i o n s" either.
Of course checking the web first is what you would do if you are a US citizen with poor acce$$ to health care.
I was diagnosed with breast calcifications and was sent to a recommended surgeon with the film.The surgeon's nurse took the films that I brought and told me to disrobe for an exam, which I thought odd because nothing could be detected topically...you had to view the film to see. I declined and asked to speak to the surgeon first.
When he came in, he was miffed because I wouldn't submit to a breast exam. And he started asking me the usual inane medical history (which was right in front of him since I had been going to that facility for 15+ years).
He said he had to do a breast exam. I asked him if he had viewed the films I brought....he hadn't and he was visibly pissed that I caught him on it. He then told me that calcifications were usually pre-cancerous.
I left and found another surgeon.
I would not take a drug or submit to a surgery for a non-emergency condition before seeking out a way to actually become whole by giving my tissue-systems building blocks of nutrition, and clearing out blockages. Nutrition and detoxification.
This is not medical advice. I am not a doctor.
Doctors can be invisibly lazy, duped by drug companies, and earn a good living.
And if you not only ask questions but dare to actually question the diagnosis, you are well on the way to being a "problem patient."