Dubai: The most popular ‘go-to-doc’ in the world today is Dr Google. It might be anything ranging from a cold allergy to an aneurysm in the brain and most of us are eager to play the doctor game, ferreting medical information so readily available at the click of a button and dozens of websites dispensing quick fixes.
Beware the fallacies of self-diagnosis, medical doctors in Dubai caution. What might be an aneurysm masquerading as a headache could prompt you to take headache pills when what you really require is a brain scan. The flip side could be true too. You may be a nervous hypochondriac imagining every symptom you come across as being manifested in you and may become addicted to temporary palliative releases.
Since self-diagnosis has become so common these days, Dr Atul Aundhekar, Chief Medical Officer at Icare clinics, says, “One can refer to the search engine sites giving medical information to get a general idea of the symptomatology leading to various possibilities of the diagnosis, in other words to know what your doctor may think of as differential diagnosis. Referring to websites is good for a general idea but it’s not a decision-making tool for sure.”
People like to argue that very often physicians put you through a battery of pathological tests where they are in fact eliminating diseases. So why not get into DIY mode? But what doctors do is make informed guesses unlike your own leap of faith.
Dr Aundhekar explains: “For example, a physician might use this technique for determining the cause of an URTI (Upper Respiratory Tract Infection) without doing the Culture and Sensitivity Report of the nasal or sputum secretions. This depends on contemporary micro-organisms causing the infection or the pattern of immunity called ‘Herd Immunity’ which is apparent at that point of time in that geography. It is similar to the difference between gambling and investment decision by a wealth manager.”
What happens when you self-diagnose?
Self-diagnosis might prompt you to under- or overmedicate yourself and, in both cases, ruin your health, says Dr George Thachil, specialist physician with Aster Medical, Dubai. “You would be putting yourself at risk with your self-diagnosis as you might miss out on a disease that had it been diagnosed early would have resulted in a better prognosis or you might be putting yourself through unnecessary stress/medicines over what you thought to be a major problem.”
Trying to treat yourself is fraught with risks, especially when you self-prescribe over-the-counter drugs (OTC) or antibiotics. “OTCs are perfectly fine for episodic primary illnesses which are self-limiting in nature in absence of co-morbidities. But for patients who are on regular medicines for lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, this is a big NO. If one has known allergies for a particular group of medicines, there is a high possibility of cross- allergy to other groups of medicines too. Such groups of patients should not risk their life with OTCs. says Dr Aundhekar.
Raising antibiotic resistance
In case of prescribing a course of antibiotics, you might be doing a disservice to yourself by developing resistance to a spectrum of antibiotics, physicians warn. “Under-medication will not result in a cure, defeating the very purpose of taking medicine. In the case of taking antibiotics in a smaller dosage (either in the strength/ frequency/duration for which it was prescribed) will result in the development of a resistant infection, which would necessitate a stronger and higher grade of antibiotic.
On the other hand, overmedication results in exaggerated or more frequent side effects than what would be anticipated at the normal usage. Wrong medications will not give a cure. Hence an entirely new set of medicines would be required for that disease. Not only would this be expensive, time-consuming and stressful but it could also expose you to a variety of side effects that can occur with the different classes of medicines,” explained Dr Thachil.
The counterpoint
But many well-informed patients feel that very often doctors are slow in their response to a potentially dangerous situation simply because they have seen one case too many of a similar kind. A Dubai resident shared his experience when he got up one fine morning feeling partially blind. He had a persistent eye ailment and after reading about it he was certain he was on the brink of a retinal detachment. Nearly two ophthalmologists he went to dismissed his anxiety to information overload and went really slow on the diagnosis and treatment. On the third day when he stopped seeing anything from that eye, he rushed to a third hospital and was operated upon immediately for retinal detachment, something which could have been averted had the first ophthalmologist heeded the symptoms. “My damage was permanent and it could have been avoided if I had got surgical intervention the first day,” he says.
A young office executive from Dubai who had a sports injury was able to get a good surgeon for his ailment only because he did his homework on the net. “I had two unsuccessful surgeries for my ligament tear and only when I read about it did I get a learned perspective on my condition and was able to focus on the right surgeon in Germany who was a pioneer in the surgery I required.”
A Dubai housewife who loves to read about alternative treatments says she often scans the net for a variety of health conditions she feels her children may be suffering from and looks for herbal or non-allopathic cures. “I do not want to rush my kids to the clinic every time they are a little under the weather. A poultice, a herbal tea, a soothing homemade balm often does the trick and I am able to avoid a long course of antibiotics,” she says.
You may want to be the smart know-it-all patient, but never forget the limitation of your web-based knowledge which is, at best, generic. So. while you may communicate your medical status better because of web surfing, trust your doctor to treat it.
Dos and don’ts for self-diagnosis
Dos
1. Check for symptomatology on the net. That will help you communicate the correct information to the doctor.
2. Try to understand from what you read on the web and get a brief idea of what plan of action your medical practitioner may have for you for this set of symptoms and probable diagnosis.
3. Read about the kinds of investigations the doctor may ask for as it might help your prepare better for these.
4. Try to manage your expectations better after reading about the possible lines of treatment and the duration required for recuperation
Don’ts
1. Self-medicate - Remember, you just can’t download the prescription of the medicines and self-administer drugs.
2. Indulge in self-investigations - you are not supposed to memorise the names of tests and ask the laboratories around the corner to do these for you. Please understand there is a science of interpreting the reports.
3 Try the remedies in sequential manner, as the web is likely to provide multiple sets of remedies.
4. Fo for OTCs, especially if you have a pre-condition as poly-pharmacy leads to interaction of two or more drugs that you might be taking.
5. Influence your doctor in decision-making with your newly gained knowledge, it may work against you, your doctor may have to prescribe extra sets of tests just to comfort you or gain your confidence.
