Online health research on the rise among patients in Bengaluru

Patients who look up their symptoms online and self-diagnose are increasing in Bengaluru, doctors say.

Prof Manoj Kumar Sharma, who heads Nimhans' Service for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) Clinic, says that the clinic's digital detox helpline gets 1-2 such callers out of a total of around 30 per month.

A case study co-authored by Prof Sharma, published this February, gives the example of a 25-year-old man who used to spend 2-3 hours a day on online health research (OHR) and suffered severe anxiety. He started the online search as his sinusitis was not improving with treatment. Based on information from YouTube videos, he later suspected that he had cancer, which further increased his OHR.

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The patient recovered through therapy sessions where he was guided to seek health information from credible websites and to discuss questions with his doctor.

"Based on search results, people may self-medicate, or even if they consult a doctor they may be dissatisfied. While OHR is common now, it is higher among people with health anxiety and those aged above 30," says Prof Sharma.

Prof Sharma's paper says that with increasing OHR, patients' expectations of doctors would shift, and this could expand doctors' duties.

Bengaluru doctors say this is already the case.

Pulmonologist Dr Ravindra Mehta says, "Patients may identify a disease that's completely unrelated to theirs. And even after they get a diagnosis, they may read about the whole spectrum of the disease and focus on the worst scenario, and panic."

But unlike earlier, many doctors are not brushing off patients' observations now. "We try to understand their level of knowledge, and explain that their particular problem doesn't fit into what they have read, and put out a plan," Dr Mehta says.

Infectious diseases consultant Dr John Paul says, "We have to set aside a small part of our consultation time for this."

Since patients are confused by the jargon they read online, he also suggests credible websites to them.

However, he says that in some cases patients become paranoid and doctors end up doing extra investigations just to allay their fears.

Prof Sharma suggests that patients limit their online search, distract themselves if they feel the urge to do it multiple times, and talk to doctors about symptoms.