Web searches making us all hypochondriac
Googling symptoms soars by 9,000%
MORE and more people are becoming hypochondriacs as they turn to the internet instead of a doctor to check if they have health problems.
Researchers found searches relating to serious symptoms have risen by up to 9,000 per cent in the last three years alone.
Experts warn this so-called ‘cyberchondria’ is a growing problem, with many patients feeling anxious as a result of having more access to information about health.
Doctors believe this drives a form of health paranoia when sufferers excessively analyse their condition. Hospitals also report rising numbers of visits from those who have self-diagnosed online or read about a celebrity’s condition. The analysis of Google reveals searches for terms such as ‘how to know chest pains are serious’ rose 8,781 per cent from 2015 to 2018.
Keywords such as sciatica, acne, mouth ulcer, IBS plus the word ‘treatment’ are searched over 100,000 times on average every year. ‘Stomach ache’ has been searched 115,800 times a year since 2015.
Hannah Sims, product manager for Perkbox Medical, the healthcare firm which commissioned the study, said people turn to the web when it is hard to get a GP appointment. ‘Over one million people a week in the UK struggle to get seen by a doctor when they need it,’ she said.
‘People naturally look for a quick-fix solution, Googling their symptoms.’
Cyberchondria already costs the Health Service £420million a year, according to estimates by King’s College London. This is because many people look up their ailments and then take a list of possible illnesses to their GP, some of whom refer them for scans and further diagnosis.
Some have a genuine physical ailment but many are convinced their condition is more severe than it really is after finding similar stories online. In September, surgeon Richard Kerr told a conference that patients needed help to navigate the ‘proliferation of information’ online to ‘understand their risk of illness’.
Previous research found the ‘worried well’ worsen their health by fretting when they do not need to.
A 2016 study in Norway found those with the highest levels of ‘health anxiety’ are more than twice as likely to develop heart problems later in life.
Scientists suspect hypochondriacs put their body on high alert, constantly on guard for any symptom. But this and the resulting stress puts them at high risk of heart disease.