The internet is chock-full of information, but not all of it is accurate. Typically, we are concerned with the accuracy of our sources on the internet, whether it's updating us on current event updates or educating us on a specific topic. However, when it comes to self-diagnosing ourselves health wise, we are normally not as wary.
Hypochondriasis, also known as illness anxiety disorder (IAD), is a common condition in which individuals believe they have a serious illness or condition despite having mild or no symptoms. This condition has been around for centuries, but a new form of hypochondriasis, known as cyberchondria, has recently emerged.
"Before the internet, it was called medical student's disease," Dr. Aaron Krasnow, associate vice president of ASU Counseling Services and Health Services, said. "The thing about medical students is that they learn about so many diseases and disorders, they start to think they have them. So, it's just like what you are talking about with the internet. The internet is filled with an enormous amount of fantastic information. It is also filled with an enormous amount of terrible information. One of the things the internet does poorly is filter the information."
Rather than relying on independent research, individuals can now turn to the vast store of medical information on the internet. The problem is that most cyberchondriacs are unable and unwilling to determine whether their sources are accurate, due to the nature of the condition.
In 2008, Microsoft conducted a study outlining health-related information on the internet, and analyzing the ability of search engines to discern reliable sources from unreliable sources. The study proved that the internet does not take important factors into account such as age, family history, and pre-existing health conditions. Hence, the internet can make it seem like one has a brain tumor when in reality, that person only has a headache. This is simply due to the fact that the internet is not capable of fulfilling the medical diagnostic process used by doctors.
Thus, most solutions to the problem are counterintuitive. To refine search engines would take away a cyberchondriacs power to self-diagnoses; it would reduce their ability to exercise their pessimistic view on their health and prevent them from choosing the more serious alternative.
This poses a problem for individuals looking to diagnose themselves using articles from the internet, possibly leading them to assume an unrealistically severe diagnosis. It allows them to use the internet as a means to reinforce their “doom and gloom” perspective on their health.
"Cyberchondria plays on a couple of psychological biases that are common among all people," Krasnow said. "One of the biases is the availability bias, which means that if some information is available to meit must have more truth value. Another bias is the vividness bias, which is if something is more vivid or exciting or serious, then we tend to give it more credit."
This condition dictates that cyberchondriacs wouldn’t necessarily believe reliable sources if they didn’t support their pre-existing expectations for their health. In other words, they would choose the more severe diagnosis regardless of the legitimacy of the source, so encouraging people to be more informed on the internet would also fail.
"For hypochondriacs, the internet has absolutely changed things for the worse," Brian Fallon, director of the Center for Neuroinflammatory Disorders and Biobehavioral Medicine at Columbia University, said to WebMD.
The accessibility of information on the internet has not only hindered the general population by clouding their judgment with unreliable sources, but it has actually increased the strength of hypochondriasis. Though this “global village” mentality benefits the general population in that it allows us, as contributing members of society, to inform and be informed by others, the internet has worsened a psychological condition that affects the majority of the population.
"Although it is possible that the pain in your side is cancer, it is not probable," Krasnow said. "It's probable that it is a pulled muscle or something else. These websites don't give you probabilities; they give you lists."
Reach the columnist at ghirneis@asu.edu or follow @ghirneise2 on Twitter.
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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