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DOCTORS have warned they are seeing too many "cyberchondriacs", those patients who misdiagnose their illnesses after Googling their symptoms.
The Australian Medical Association is concerned the plethora of online medical information is doing more harm than good, with patients increasingly referring to the internet for advice before consulting a trained GP.
they are just sick of people being able to do their job with a simple internet search. im sure they are also sick of it when they disagree with what the person found on the internet and they have to actually deal with a patient that has an opinion.
I absolutely will not.. and whoever wrote that article can bite me!
I figured out 2 major health concerns, after much suffering, from the INTERNET-- when the "trained GPs" I went to did not or could not diagnose it properly: Whooping Cough, and Costochondritis. Those really aren't that difficult to diagnose. I went back and TOLD THE DOCTORS what it was that I had. I do like the docs I'm going to..... but still! Someone should have known, yet no one had a clue.
So no one can tell me to stop googling health stuff. However,, it doesn't have to make you a neurotic hypochondriac either...
A lot of the times Drs can`t even diagnose someones problem. So of course people are going try and figure out what is going on with them. You have to look out for yourself because they sure aren`t.
Doctors must think the general public is just stupid if they think they can get people to stop becoming informed consumers - medical care is a business and we are consumers.
I researched a condition I had where the doctor had mis-prescribed a particular remedy. I informed the doctor of my findings and my doctor ended up asking me for my opinion on what to do next. If I had taken her advice, I would have gone to a department that had nothing at all to do with the malady and I would have taken two or more toxic prescriptions that would not have solved my problem and would probably have made it worse and would have made my system more polluted.
As it was, I figured out how to manage my symptoms through diet, which eventually alleviated the condition all-together.
It took work. My doctor had no idea and there is no way I am going to stop educating myself and advocating for myself.
irrespective of what the article says, i think you'll find many doctors welcome an informed patient, and if that means they have been doing research on the internet, then great.
what causes problems is when someone has got it into their head that they have a particular condition, and then refuse to listen to reason as to why that is not the case, or that, in fact, they have something else. a good clue that this might be about to happen is when, on an initial consultation, a patient enters the clinic with dozens of pages printed out from the internet, with highlighted text and scribbles all over it.
bottom line - the more informed the patient, the better. the challenge that most people have with the abundance of data we all now have at our disposal, is finding accurate sources of information, and putting into the correct context.
No MOST Drs DO NOT want patients educating themselves! PERIOD! Yet they cannot exzert themselves to figure out what is wrong with a patient. IF you are a woman well then you are thinking to much about it and to get a hobby! Or you are to young to have that problem and it turns out you do!
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