The Disadvantages About Asking Medical Questions Online

People naturally make assessments of their own health every day. After identifying any unusual physical or mental areas, a person may choose to visit a medical professional for an explanation as to their causes. In recent years, however, self-diagnosis has become easier, thanks to the advent of the Internet and the multiple websites that allow people to correlate their symptoms with various conditions.

Individual Differences

• Websites cannot take into account some of the sometimes subtle differences between individuals. By contrast, a physician uses a combination of a patient's history, his own experience, and what the patient tells (and doesn't tell) him. According to Ochsner website, doctors undergo years of training to help them understand the subtle differences between the symptoms of things like sore throats and strep throat. A physician may also use diagnostic tests to further aid his diagnosis. Websites are unable to match a physician's depth of investigation and are therefore more likely to simplify a person's problems and yield false results. Furthermore, a person may be suffering from multiple conditions, which a website is less likely to determine.

Cost

• While self-diagnosis websites ostensibly save the health care system money, they may lead to a patient needing more comprehensive treatment in the long term, reports the Glaucoma Eye Info website. Conditions left untreated or treated with the wrong medicine are liable to worsen. A person who thinks she is already diagnosed and starts treating herself may be slower to seek professional help, despite a deteriorating condition. When she does eventually seek help, her health will require more time and effort to repair than if she had sought outside medical attention from the outset.

Treatment

• A wrong diagnosis may lead a person to obtain medicine that is unsuitable for his condition. While this medicine will only be obtainable over the counter, it still has the potential to cause damage. Alternatively, a person may mistakenly attribute symptoms to a condition that requires no medicine. The Mental Help website gives the example of a person who diagnoses himself with an anxiety problem and carries out simple relaxation exercise to ease it when, in fact, he is suffering from a heart arrhythmia that requires medical treatment.

False Reassurance

• Sometimes a person may not wish to admit that she has a problem. Using a website for diagnosis gives a person the ability to play down symptoms she considers negative or unwanted. In this way she can assure herself she is not suffering from a particular condition. The danger here is that the patient refrains from seeking outside medical attention and continues ignoring problems, with potentially damaging results.