'Dr Google' or Cyberchondria
'Dr. Google' or Cyberchondria It would not be an exaggeration to say that most patients do some amount of research on search engines, especially Google, to find out more about their illness. This is usually done even before they visit their doctor, and quite often after a medical consultation - to understand more about their disease as well as to do background research on the drugs/ medicines prescribed. Cyberchondria is a feeling of increased anxiety induced by using the internet to search about our own illnesses. Negative write-ups, fake information, complicated medical jargon sometimes make us more bewildered on seeking information on the net. Coupled with false claims of cure, dire warnings about simple illnesses tend to confuse the reader. There seems to be some clarity on this issue now. A recent study conducted by the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Department of Health Care Policy looked at the accuracy with which someone could pick up the r...