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AMA warns about frequent errors and dangers of self-diagnostics using the "blunt" the internet.
Doctors are warning of catastrophic consequences after new research revealed four out of five Australians are turning to the web for health information and almost half of those who are using Dr Google to make a diagnosis.
GPs leaders say people are showing the doctor fears of health problems when the real problem is minor, while others put off going to the your GPs because they believe that your problem is not serious.
An international survey conducted by Bupa health insurance also discovered that 80 percent of Australians who use the network to health issues, 70 percent of research also seek information about medicines.
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Dr Google leads us up the garden path, warn GPs.
The survey covered more than 12000 people worldwide, including 1000 Australians. Overall, 68 percent of respondents used on the net for information about medicine and 47 percent to make a diagnosis.
Dr Brian Morton, former President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) in NSW and Chairman of the Board of general practice, said today that he was seeing a man who had presented with symptoms of temporal arteritis-inflammation and damage to blood vessels that supply the head area.
The condition must be managed with urgency and can lead to "blindness catastrophic," said Morton.
However, the son of man be 70 years old had googled the symptoms-body aches and pain in the jaw when chewing-which led to suspect that they were actually the side effects of Lipitor, a popular drug for lowering cholesterol.
"He thought that all he needed to do was stop your medication in lowering cholesterol," says Morton.
In addition, the man also used a search engine search medicine Morton him prescribed for temporal arteritis and second-guessed treatment.
"Then there is potential for Dr Google and family members well-meaning cause a catastrophe," said Morton.
He said that he also regularly came with elders that were pulled in erectile dysfunction remedies objectionable internet. Another trend important medication online was people buying "natural remedies", with no guarantee that the product was effective or "the real McCoy".
"Food is marked as or is not as medication around regulation and secondly is labeled as natural and people tell if it's natural can help me, how to eat a piece of fruit or something," he said.
Dr Steve Hambleton, federal Vice-Chair of the AMA, said that the "information explosion" on the internet had generated many great sources of medical advice, but also large amounts of information.
"50 per cent, which is trying to self diagnose is really worrying, because that's the hardest part, which is where you need someone with very extensive experience that can look for all parameters at the same time and try to reach a view as to where to go," he said.
"That's why GPs are not allowed to practice independently until they had 10 years of training."
He gave as an example a headache is a symptom of a brain tumor. However, the vast majority of people with headaches don't have brain tumors.
"You will spend half query convince them that lacks something and then the other half trying to figure out what they have," said Hambleton.
BUPA's research has identified other examples. Pins and needles, depending on which site you look, could be a vitamin B12 deficiency, sciatica or multiple sclerosis. Stomach cramps can be indigestion, appendicitis or heart disease, while an earache could be the result of a common cold, an ear infection, or cerebral abscess.
"You can really be convinced that you have something that you really don't have," said Hambleton.
Hambleton said that people should only use the internet to research conditions a doctor told them that they have, rather than trying to unite a diagnosis based on a variety of symptoms.
He said that the University websites, medical journals, Government health sites and sites of organizations that specialize in specific diseases such as Diabetes Australia, were the most trusted online sources of medical information.
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