Well there’s actually a name for it and it’s called cyberchondria.

Cyberchondria is defined as anxiety induced by escalation during online search to review

morbid or serious content.

So what does this mean?

Well it means that you have a headache and you end up reading about brain tumor.

And there’s a very good reason behind it.

Humans have a propensity to escalate, to review the worst possible scenario probably to dismiss

it.

So come back to the headache.

If you went to your doctor and you said I have a terrible headache and your doctor said

well, you could have anything from a hangover to a brain tumor.

You would say oh my goodness, talk to me about the brain tumor.

And essentially that’s what happens online.

People click on the worst case scenario and therefore those scenarios get driven up the

search rankings.

So the point about search it’s based on a frequency model, things that are frequently

clicked are those things that actually rise to the top of search results.

That’s fine if you’re looking at best beach in Florida but when it comes to health

related matters it’s problematic.

Why?

Because it causes anxiety and you could be perfectly well but end up with a nasty case

of health anxiety as a result of search.

So the thing is if there’s something wrong with your car and you Google it or search

it inherently you’re not going to do any damage to the car.

But in terms of bodily symptoms, the very act of searching can bring about or instigate

psychosomatic factors.

Psyche being mind and soma being body.

So you can believe to feel that you are actually suffering from some terrible condition.

If you put any body part now into search what you will see is pages of tumor and cancer.

And, in fact, just a month or so ago on Google’s official blog they have well, owned up to

the issue and have also told us that one percent of all online search actually relates to medical

search, people Googling symptoms.

I’ve published in this area and I’ve published a paper which actually looks at a phenomenon

which I name as cyberchondria by proxy.

And that is people searching health results of others.

And the thing is if you survive the initial search and you get to the intuitive diagnostic

websites that prompt symptomatology it actually can make the problem worse.

Why?

You’ve got a pain in your arm.

Could be from carrying a heavy bag or a harsh workout in the gym.

You go online and you’re led through this decision pathway.

Is the pain radiating across your chest?

Well it could be.

Do you feel tingling in your fingertips?

Well when I think about it I do.

Are you palpitating?

Well of course I am.

You then rush to your GP, your doctor, and you present with a cluster of symptoms that

actually mimic a cardiac event.

The point is that doctors don’t prompt symptoms but artificial intelligence based systems

diagnostic tools do.

There’s a great paper called hypochondriacal hermeneutics and the paper argues that the

doctor-patient relationship is a hypochondriacal exercise in its own right.

One person sitting there talking about symptoms and the other trying to interpret them.

And effectively if you appear or manifest with this perfect cluster your doctor has

got no choice but to put you in the pipeline for intrusive, diagnostic, investigative procedures

which are all inherently risky.

A report came out recently that was published in the BMJ that has stated that iatrogenic

death is the third cause of death in the USA.

Iatrogenic would cover – it’s a catchall for problems in terms of taking medication,

medical error, infection.

So it’s death by accident within the medical system.

But in my book I note and of course I’m aware of causation correlation but there’s

a very interesting trend that iatrogenic death has increased fourfold between 1999 and 2011

and actually shadows the growth of the internet.

Let’s think about that.