What exactly qualifies as self-diagnosis? Is it the moment when someone forms their own opinion about the reason behind a symptom? The process of researching a potential health condition? What physicians call a growing trend with their patients is, for many people, a behavior as everyday as looking up movie times or reading a news article online.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines diagnosis as “the art or act of identifying a disease from its signs and symptoms,” and while the word “self-diagnosis” does not appear in it, if it did, its definition might look pretty much the same as that in Wikipedia: “Self-diagnosis is the process of diagnosing, or identifying, medical conditions in oneself.” As one piece pointed out, people are essentially self-diagnosing every time they buy a bottle of Tylenol.
A wealth of articles and opinions can be found on this topic. However, the vast majority are written by doctors and other medical professionals discouraging people from diagnosing themselves. The warnings they offer are no doubt well founded in many respects. However, there is a paucity of discussion on the potential usefulness of self diagnosis, and the role it could or should play in consumers’ relationships with their doctors. There’s also a tendency to conflate self diagnosis with conducting research, in particular online research.
It would be refreshing to see this topic explored more from the patient/consumer perspective. That said, Verywell Heatlh offers a more balanced view than many, albeit it focuses primarily on what doctors think and the different perspectives heard in focus groups with physicians.