Do you check symptoms online? You may be a cybercondriac

You get a headache. Is it a brain tumor? There’s a pain in your chest. You think you’re having a heart attack. If you go online to research your symptoms, you might be a “cyberchondriac.”

Surveys show most of us do refer to the Internet to research medical information. New findings published in the Journal of Consumer Research conclude that people who self-diagnose are more likely to believe they are seriously ill. That’s because they focus on the symptoms, rather than the likelihood that they have a serious disease.

The new President of the Washington State Medical Association, Dr. Nick Rajacich, has discussed the phenomenon of “cyberchondria” with his colleagues.

“They go, oh man, this happens all the time. People come in with a headache and they’re convinced they’re going to be dying of a brain tumor, and they could, but they don’t.”

Symptom matching is a lot easier these days with all the information available on the Internet, not all of it good.

“Some patients will come in with bad information and you have to remind them that just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t make it true and I’ve sort of suggested to people that if the site they’re reading is affiliated with a major university, then they’re probably looking at a good source,” said Rajacich.

Dr. Rajacich often encourages patients to use the Internet but not before they’ve been diagnosed by a doctor.

“People come in with at least some information on board and you can sort of reassure them about the part that they get right and you can dissuade them if something that they’ve read is from the wrong source or a bad source,” Rajacich said.

“Cyberchondria” has a tendency to drive up the cost of health care. The Washington State Medical Asssociation is just now launching a new program to encourage doctors and patients to make better, cost-efficient decisions about their treatment.

One group of specialty doctors has already recommended against the use of magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, for certain problems, for example.

“People come in [and say] my back’s been hurting for four months and I want you to do an MRI scan on my back to find out what’s wrong. And, at that point, I think the conversation should happen with the patient about whether that’s really necessary,” Rajacich argued.

Curiously, the same researchers found that we are much more accurate assessing somebody else’s symptom’s, exhibiting a “calm objectivity” while fearing the worst about our own health.