Medical Googler or Cyberchondriac ?

                             Cyberchondriac (sy bur KA WN dree ak) n.

- a person who imagines they have a particular disease because their symptoms match those listed on an Internet health site.

You’re spending an extraordinary amount of time on the internet seeking out information on medical conditions, digging yourself deeper and deeper in into the abyss.

Does that make you a medical googler or a cyberchondriac?

Here’s a clue – do you feel better or worse at the end of your search?

A medical googler, such as myself who seeks out medical information for the purpose of writing will feel great at the end of the search. Having found something interesting and informative to to write about, I can move on to the next medical issue at hand.

A patient or family member who is researching information to confirm or assist them in making decisions about treatment or choosing appropriate medical professionals to help them will often feel overwhelmed but empowered.

Then there are the cyberchondriacs – people who take medical information out of context and self-diagnose themselves. This, of course, is not by any means a new phenonmenon. We all do it to a certain extent, even medical professionals.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term ‘medical school syndrome‘ that describes gullible medical (and nursing) students who, after studying a particular disease, suddenly believe they have all the signs and symptoms of said disease. It never amounts to much but seems real at the time.

Most of the 160 million Americans who use the internet looking for medical information can not really be classified as true cyberchondriacs. They are more likely suffering from a form of medical student syndrome.

But there are some people- already predisposed to hypochondria – who will be making things much worse for themselves by using the internet to search out medical information. As Dr. Brian Fallon of Columbia University states “…ninety percent of hypochondriacs with internet access [will] become cyberchondriacs…”

So what are you – a medical googler or a cyberchondriac?

My advice. If, when searching out medical information on the internet, you quickly become convinced your shaking hands mean you have Parkinson’s Disease and that the sore throat is the start of leukaemia, you may need to back away from the computer for a while…