There are now many different kinds of internet sites and apps offering medical advice, but they all share one thing in common: they do more harm than good.
Why might online sources of medical advice be said to ‘do more harm than good’? Present a counter-argument. To what extent do you agree with the statement?
An online source of medical advice could do more harm than good because the advice offered is erroneous. These sites might not be regulated. Someone who is not professionally qualified might be running the site and have written the guidance. Furthermore, these sites rely on people accurately describing their symptoms.
People cannot always be trusted to do so. People can misdiagnose things. Some people are alarmists or fantasists. They make conditions out to be much worse than they really are. They might suffer from Munchausen’s Syndrome or Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy. The former is where a person imagines that he or she has a medical condition. The person might put a great deal of time and effort into reading about symptoms so he or she can describe them in textbook languages. The person might even fake symptoms. Such a person can present himself or herself to a clinic or hospital and be very convincing because he or she knows exactly what to say. The patient might be genuinely convinced that he or she is suffering from the illness despite the patient having fabricated some of the symptoms. The person is faking it because he or she is seeking secondary gain. The person wants attention, sympathy and a sense of importance. The person might be afflicted with a martyrdom complex and like the idea of being seen to suffer.
Munchausen’s Syndrome by proxy is where a parent or carer believes that a child or someone in his or her care has an illness. This is the same as Munchausen’s Syndrome except that the person driving the syndrome does not claim to suffer it himself or herself.
These apps and websites can easily be abused by people who imagine that they or their children suffer from an ailment. People can be very excitable and might panic. These sites sometimes offer advice about how to cure an illness without obtaining a prescription. People can treat themselves with things that are not prescription drugs. These treatments can cause illnesses or aggravate illnesses. This self-treatment is not taking place under any medical superintendence.
The counter argument is that anything that disseminates medical knowledge among the general public is to be applauded. There are a few foolish people who misuse any information. However, the generality of those who look to these sites and apps do so sensibly. They are able to diagnose their own illness and treat it sensibly. This can be something as simple as resting, drinking more water or taking light exercise. It might involve counsel about food or drink to avoid or perhaps to make sure that the person keeps warm. Sometimes a patient discovers that he or she is not ill at all.
There are some urgent illnesses that patients find out they have using things like apps and websites. For instance, take meningitis. If treated quickly the person can make a full recovery. However, if a person is not treated it can kill the person in 72 hours. It is vital that the person realises that this is a deadly illness and goes to accident and emergency fast. The app or website can make the patient apprehend the gravity of the situation immediately and to take action. Otherwise the patient might put it down to a bad headache and tarry. Even when the consequences are not fatal the person can be left brain damaged and have to have limbs amputated.
Apps and websites about health also triage minor conditions. It means that clinics and hospitals are not clogged up with a huge number of patients with trifling ailments that will clear up on their own without any intervention. This means that much pressed doctors and nurses then have sufficient time to treat people who really need care.
In conclusion, this essay largely disagrees with the title statement. Whilst there are some unwise people who will misuse and misunderstand information, on balance the desirable results of informing the public about their health surely outweigh the disadvantages.