It’s not hard to find critics of online health info. There seems to be a belief that the Internet has turned us into cyberchondriacs, obsessively Googling “sore knee” or “headache in morning” to figure out which life-alterning ailment we have just developed. But is cyberchondria itself being over-(self-)diagnosed?

To see what a leading anxiety disorders specialist thought about our use of online health sites I went to Dr. Randi McCabe, Psychologist-In-Chief at Hamilton, Ontario’s St. Jospeh’s Health Care. Part of her anxiety disorders research has examined the extent to which health-realted sites provoke anxiety. She was able to put the dangers and benefits of online health info searching into perspective for me.

“For peope who can critically evaluate the information that’s online, it’s great. For people who continuosly doubt their health, people with health anxiety in specific, these sites often make matters worse. On (a site like Patients Like Me [mentioned here and here]), a health anxiety patient might hear about a side effect of their medication. That will provoke anxiety and from there the patient might get to such a high level of anxiety that he or she will stop taking medication or stop going to counselling. In that case, the info online can have indirect, negative health consequences.”

What I took away from my conversation with Dr. McCabe is that for people with moderate-to-severe health anxiety disorders, online health info can provoke extreme anxiety. But for anyone who is not “health anxious” already, the Internet is generally a helpful health resource.

So let’s stop prepetuating this rumour of a cyberchondria epidemic, continue to be responsible consumers of information, and recognize legitimate online health communities as genuine sources of help and support.