From Hypochondria to ‘Cyberchondria:’ Steering clear of Web-based self-diagnosis
By Dr. Lisa Santora
Microsoft has entered the field of medical research. Why? One word: cyberchondria. Cyberchondria is a new word that describes the unfounded escalation of concerns after reviewing Web search results for common symptoms.
Last year, a very frightened patient, Mary, scheduled a visit with me after diagnosing herself with cancer. Mary researched her symptoms – fatigue and hot spells – on the Web and became convinced that she had leukemia. After a complete physical exam, appropriate diagnostic tests and many follow-up visits for reassurance, I finally convinced Mary that her “cancer” was actually a combination of menopause, stress and sleep deprivation.
Persons with hypochondria fear that minor symptoms are due to serious illnesses, become preoccupied with their body and attempt to diagnose themselves with diseases. Persons dealing with stress, depression and anxiety also may develop similar fears and behaviors. The Web provides enough fuel to ignite their fears, preoccupations and concerns into cyberchondria.
The World Wide Web provides valuable medical information to people, and many sites provide users with information about diseases that helps them decide if their symptoms require medical attention. But when the Web is used as a tool for self-diagnosis, it can lead many people to believe that common symptoms are caused by serious illnesses.
A Microsoft study (http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/76529/TR-2008-178.pdf) found that 2 percent of all Web queries were health related. A quarter of the study group (250,000 users) engaged in at least one medical search during the study. Of this group, almost a third escalated their follow-up searches to explore serious illnesses. When Microsoft surveyed the medical search habits of its own employees, the company found that 50 percent said that online medical searches related to a serious illness had interrupted their day-to-day activities at least once.
The research findings ring true for many doctors who now spend more time explaining to patients the limits of health information found on the Internet. Most doctors understand cyberchondria because they have suffered from a form of it themselves. During the second year of medical school, medical students are exposed to vast amounts of information about disease processes. This information, combined with stress, has caused many medical students to diagnose themselves with a serious disease.
The Medical Library Association offers great recommendations for searching medical information on the Web (www.mlanet.org/ resources/userguide.html). Begin your health searches using credible health information tools like MedlinePlus (http://medlineplus.gov), produced by the National Library of Medicine, or Healthfinder (http://healthfinder.gov) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
When you find a relevant site, make sure the information is credible, timely and useful. Review the content by checking who is sponsoring the site, which may be recognizable by the name of the Web site address. Some respected and dependable sites are government agencies (.gov), professional organizations (.org) and educational institutions
(.edu). For example, the American Cancer Society’s Web site is www.cancer.org.
An important organization providing guidance on basic ethical standards for medical and health Web sites is the Health on the Net Foundation (HON) (www.hon.ch). HON works to ensure health information seekers on the Internet always know the source and purpose
of the data they are reading.
Remember many commercial sites (.com) represent a specific company using the Web to sell products. A good exception would be Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.com). Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit institution with more than 100 years of history in patient care, medical research and education. Their Web site is edited by more than 2,000 physicians, scientists, writers and educators. You can differentiate the Mayo Clinic Web site from commercial sites by its HONCode certification.
Patients have become “consumers” of health care and should use credible resources to make informed decisions. In this era of technology, it can be difficult to “ferret out” trustworthy, evidence-based information from unreliable, sometimes sensational, information. Using the guidelines above will prevent you from developing cyberchondria and help you safely navigate health information on the Web.
