Cyberchondria: What? Me worry?

I had to laugh at a condition described on a recent news report. Cyberchondria is a term first used in a 2001 article published the UK newspaper The Independent to describe “the excessive use of internet health sites to fuel health anxiety” (it also was first used by the BBC that same year). Several studies have been conducted, confirming the prevalence of this disorder and its tendency to escalate concern about common symptoms and increase misuse of medical information (google cyberchondria for a full description of the studies and their findings).

Undoubtedly, web crawls exponentially multiply the number of resources for laypersons to access the medical universe. But for symptom-scared folks like me who, despite spousal protest, purchased (and hid) a copy of the Merck Manual; who as a child regularly consulted a big, green medical text (the name escapes me) with those plastic overlays of the body’s “systems” in the centerfold; who will tell you that every headache is a potential brain tumor and every wound harbors gruesome infection, even as the editor of a medical journal, cyberchondria is not news. It is confirmation — almost sad —that as much as we try to learn more about ourselves, we seem to feel we have to seek answers on our own and not ask our providers— a statement on bedside manner, time clinicians allot patients, and trust. It’s like the commercial where the woman states she read something on the Internet, so it must be true. So NOT true.

In all honesty, this does not seem to be as much a nurse issue as a physician issue. But perhaps you can remind the doctors with whom you work: if I take time to come see you, assume all is not well. Ask me. Look at me (not your drop-down EMR menu). If you are running late, you probably had kept me waiting, so don’t rush in and out. Take your time. And if you are too pressed to offer lengthy explanations, please direct me to other professionals, provide written materials (handouts), or offer reliable worthwhile websites.