Dr. Google & the Perils Of Cyberchondria

Many among us who turn to the internet for our imagined or real ailments could become a “Cyberchondriac”. This term describes a growing number of otherwise rational internet users who, when they present their symptoms to “Dr Google”, latch on to the worst “diagnosis” thrown back at them, reports The Independent.

“Cyberchondria has been around for almost a decade, but a recent study is the first to systematically investigate it.

“Eric Horvitz and Ryen White, scientists at Microsoft’s research division, analysed the internet behaviour of a million surfers around the world, and carried out a survey of more than 500 Microsoft employees, to discover how the internet is giving many of us an acute case of the heebie-jeebies…

“Why are so many of us so willing to believe the skewed result of web searches? One problem is laziness. A recent American study by the Pew Internet Project revealed that while eight in 10 of us use the internet to look for information about our health, about the same proportion – 75 per cent – do not check the source of that information or the date it was created. The rest comes down to psychology…

“Surely the only cure for cyberchondria is to steer well clear of the internet? Not according to Pauline Brimblecombe, a GP who works near Cambridge. She believes the internet has made patients ‘more interested in their own health and therefore more likely to look after themselves’. She adds: ‘If my patients Google something and come rushing in with bits of paper, at least I know what they’re worried about and can reassure them’.

“Horvitz, too, believes in the power of the web. ‘It’s an extraordinary resource for healthcare information,’ he says. ‘We’re talking about a stone with a rough edge here, not a fatal flaw’.” More here…