"Cyberchondriacs"

While checking the wonderful world of Google Reader I found this little gem about "cyberchondriacs." I thought it would be fun to add my own take on article... aka, add snide comments (the article is in full).

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- First-year medical students are some of the biggest hypochondriacs around. Bombarded with information about every disease under the sun, they start to imagine they have them all. In their minds, every mole is skin cancer. A nosebleed is surely a sign of a tumor. Headache? Must be skyrocketing blood pressure.

Hmm, can kinda see where they are going... but here's the problem... first year is all normal anatomy/physiology/etc. It's not really until you hit second year that you start seeing the crazy stuff. That being said, yes, we have been exposed to some things... but don't think I'm rushing to diagnose myself with idiopathic thrombocytopenia, meningocoele, walker-walburg or xeroderma pigmentosa anytime soon. (The only thing I'm close to diagnosing myself with is hypothyroidism, for which there are many reasons) The diseases we see are things that 1.) you would NEVER want to diagnose yourself with (at least thus far), 2.) you would have been diagnosed with when you were a very young child, 3.) you could not have and maintain live.

"People get terribly anxious," says Dr. Arthur Barsky, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "One woman who came to see me was convinced she had melanoma. She brought in 20 pages of color photos of various skin lesions, trying to figure out which one looked most like hers."

Hey, at least she was watching her freckles... that's just good health maintaince. And maybe she was a little prone to hyperchondrianism. But hey, she might have a reason. Maybe she has a history of tanning and skin cancer in the family. You can't stop here and make her seem crazy. More story needed on that... it could be a very legitimate fear.

And now, because of the Internet, we can all be
first-year medical students. We can all develop what's called "medical student syndrome." We get basic information, and not necessarily a lot of context, and
we're off and running toward a conclusion that may be completely wrong.

No, no you cannot. Just because you have internet does not even begin to get you close to being a first-year medical student for many reasons:

1.) You did not make it through pre-med course work or take the 8-hour long MCAT

2.) You did not pay over $1000 to try and get into a school that make you feel nothing more than average

3.) You do not study 6 hours a day on top of 6 hours of class

4.) You actually have time to search for your random diseases on the internet, while med students only search for the things which they have to learn about

5.) Are "basic information" would take you at least twice as much time to read, let alone understand (unless you have some scientific background)

6.) You are not having 700 pages of notes crammed into your brain in 3 1/2 weeks.

So, no, you do not get to even begin to compare yourself to a 1st year medical student.

Of course, health information on the Internet can
be truly useful. But how do you know when you're using it constructively, and when you've gone off on a medical wild goose chase? "I think it's fairly easy to cross that line," says Robin DiMatteo, a professor of psychology at the
University of California, Riverside.

So how do you know when you've become a "cyberchondriac"?You may be a cyberchondriac if ...
... you feel worse
after Web surfing instead of better. "If research on the Internet helps to make you feel empowered, and engaged in a dialogue with your doctor, it's helpful," DiMatteo says. "But if it makes your heart rate go up, that's potentially
problematic."Or to put it another way: "If you feel more scared and confused after being on the computer for half an hour, that's not good," says Dr. Vicki Rackner, a surgeon and patient advocate.

Umm, duh!?!?! Let's use common sense here... why would you continue doing something that makes feel like you're about to keel over any second. That's just insane. If you do, you need more help than just a PCP... you need a psychiatrists. And why are they talking to a surgeon? I don't know many people who contact a surgeon with their first concerns... usually it's their family practioner.

... your doctor's reassurances don't help. "I don't have a
problem with people fishing around on the Internet to see what diseases they might have," Barsky says. "For most people, a doctor's reassurances that they're fine is adequate. I worry about the people for whom that isn't enough, and whose concerns persist and go right back on the Internet."

Yes, I agree with the doctor. You see there is thing called health literacy. Most people don't have it... so it is actually good to look online and get information. It makes you INFORMED. Just like when you go to do anything in real life, a little prior knowledge is helpful. It makes sure you know what's going on... it means you can ask the right questions.

... you move quickly from suspicion to conviction. If you quickly become convinced your shaking hands are Parkinson's disease, or your sore throat is an immune deficiency, you need to back away, our panel of experts says. Investigate your symptoms if you like, but leave the diagnosing to the doctors.

Amen... there's a reason we are going to school for 4+ years and getting paid almost nothing for the next 7+... it's called an MD. It means that we might actually have a little idea of what's going on when you go see a doctor. Remember, the internet does not mean you know more... we probably have a more complete knowledge base on the issue at hand, and if we don't we have lots of professional journals that explain it in more depth.

How to avoid becoming a cyberchondriac. Barsky suggests
putting limits on your surfing right from the start."Plan in advance what you want to find out, what the question is you're trying to answer, and how much time you're willing to spend on it," he says. "If you find yourself exceeding
those limits, you should ratchet it down."Rackner has advice based on her own experience as a medical student. "I was studying for an exam on the pancreas, and I became convinced I had a rare type of pancreatic tumor. I thought, 'I don't need to study because I'm going to die,' " Rackner remembers.

I think a lot of us would rather think we were dying than failing the exam the next day... but maybe that's just me. OR maybe we feel like the exam will kill us, so why not have a little pancreatic cancer to help it along. JUST KIDDING.

What snapped her out of it? A good night's sleep and an honest discussion with herself. "When you're off on a medical wild goose chase, you disconnect yourself from your intuition. Ask yourself, do you really have this disease? The answer will almost always be 'no.'

I have nothing else to add except overall... an okay article.