Medical sites that let you skip the doctor and do your own diagnosis are all over the Net, including one that gives 700 causes for your stomach pain, including Abruptio Placentae and Abdominal Neoplasm.
News that searching the Internet to see if you have a terrible disease can actually be a bad idea, should comes as no surprise.
The syndrome is being dubbed "cyberchondria" by Microsoft researchers, and refers to increased anxiety brought on by people with little or no medical training, who go searching for answers to common medical complaints on the Web.
Some of these sites have seriously long lists of potential diseases and ailments to choose from. We also found ome sites, such as Wrong Diagnosis, have clear warnings about the dangers of relying on the Internet for advice, instead of a doctor.
So just where can you go if you want to try digging for dirt on that hacking cough, or mysterious rash you've picked up?
MSN Health & Fitness
As well as supplying the ever important information of what foods to eat, and how and when to eat them, (plus some important tips on getting the perfect abs), MSN Health and Fitness supplies a “Symptom Checker” in which nervous sufferers can click on the area of the body that is bothering them, and choose from a list of related tribulations. The site is generally easy to navigate, with clear text and graphics to a related article or webpage. It seems to be aimed at a generally younger audience, with simple language, a bright layout and articles that are in the common interest of a younger audience, i.e, “secret power foods”.
WebMD
These guys aren't mucking around - one of the first things that strike you when you arrive at the WebMD homepage is the Symptom Checker link, so they get a tick for easy navigation. You can either choose from a list of suspect diseases and disorders or you can choose to specify the areas where you are experiencing the symptoms and narrow your illness down to a number of options. You are then provided with a load of information for about 20 or so conditions, where you can now choose which one you have (or at least, in theory). This site seems to be a bit more complicated than the MSN site, but a whole lot more specific and should appeal to anyone who can actually use the Internet.
Mayo Clinic
This site is ideal for the typical anxious parent, because it is the only site with a clear disclaimer on the first page, telling you to seek actual medical advice as these are only suggestions. Once you’ve actually located the Symptom Checker on the Mayo Clinic website (or if you’re really smart and use Google), you can choose from a significantly smaller, yet still useful, range of common adult and child symptoms. You can then choose from a range of accompanying symptoms, and it will give you a list of possible illnesses you or your child might or might not be suffering from. This doesn’t give you quite as many as the other sites, but perhaps that is a blessing in disguise.
Wrong Diagnosis
It’s all choices, choices, choices with this Multiple Symptom Checker from Wrong Diagnosis. First you have a choice of selecting from 10 common symptoms such as rashes and nausea, or you can browse the alphabet for the symptom you’re looking for. If you hate a narrowed down search, you can just as easily select your symptom from the full list (mind that there are actually over 3000 symptom names if you choose that path). You can then add a second symptom, and lo and behold, you’ll come up with around 700 causes for your stomach pain, including Abruptio Placentae and Abdominal Neoplasm. Notably, Wrong Diagnosis provides several warnings about its multiple symptom checker, such as "Do not use the information from the multi-symptom search for diagnosis" and "Only a doctor can give an accurate diagnosis". They also have an article on the "pitfalls of self-diagnosis".
MedicineNet.com
It’s pretty easy to find the symptom checker at MedicineNet.com, and with far less glitzy graphics, seems to be targeted at an older, more serious audience. You can pinpoint your symptoms by clicking on the part of the body that you’re experiencing troubles with, and a variety of subheadings will pop-up, with links to articles about the illness you may be inflicted with. Simple and plain: you don’t even a medical degree to use it.