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DualDiagnosis writes in Issues and Dangers of Self-Diagnosis:

But sometimes people skip the doctor’s office, and they hop online to diagnose their own diseases. While this method might seem expedient, and it’s certainly common, it can be remarkably dangerous.

From Why Self-Diagnosing Yourself On The Internet Can Do You More Harm Than Good:

Dr Ravi Gaur, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Oncquest Labs Pvt. Ltd., says, "Self-diagnosis can be very harmful because there are many disorders which have common symptoms.”

and

A slight misinterpretation can result in a wrong treatment of the disease that you don't even possess, therefore, it would be the right thing to trust your doctor and do not be an impatient patient!

Is there academic evidence that suggests that on average self diagnosis is more likely to be harmful than benefitial?

Christian
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    The quotes and the question don't seem to match. – Nat Feb 11 '18 at 13:23
  • It depends on who's doing the self-diagnosis, dontcha think? And wouldn't you suppose that the "medical establishment" has financial and emotional motivations to discourage self-diagnosis. Any "evidence" you find needs to clearly address these issues. – Daniel R Hicks Feb 11 '18 at 13:32
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    Is your question about self-diagnosis vs a doctors visit or self-diagnosis vs nothing? The answer to the first question seems rather obvious, the second question seems more difficult to answer. – tim Feb 11 '18 at 15:10
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    As @Nat pointed out, neither of the quotes says anything about "on average" or "more likely". They are hedged with the words "can be", which makes the actual claim pretty unremarkable. – paradisi Feb 11 '18 at 19:52
  • @Tim : I don't think either. I don't think the phrase "self-diagnosis vs a doctors visit" captures what I mean. Sometimes self-diagnosis leads to visiting the doctor sometimes it leads to not visiting the doctor. There are various doctors who are opposed to patients doing self-diagnosis. Take [this](https://www.thedailybeast.com/hey-parents-google-is-not-a-pediatrician-diy-diagnosis-is-dangerous) for example: `But what I’d really prefer is that they’d forgo the Internet search and ensuing anxiety entirely, and just wait until a proper examination can be done and a reasonable diagnosis made.` – Christian Feb 11 '18 at 20:00
  • @DanielRHicks if you have the diagnostics skills to make a proper self-diagnosis of a condition that has symptoms in common with other conditions, you're a doctor and not one of the people who these articles warn against using self-diagnosis. And you're a pretty good doctor too, as in those situations many of them will make the wrong diagnosis first try in case one of those conditions is much more rare than the other. – jwenting Feb 12 '18 at 10:08
  • The terrors of this relevant answer are still sinking in for me, even a correct diagnosis from a real doctor 'can be' of no benefit: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/6568/does-screening-for-prostate-cancer-save-lives – daniel Feb 12 '18 at 11:46
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    This is way too vague to be a real question at the moment. Yesterday, my eyes felt like they wanted to close, and my thinking was a big vague and I wanted to sleep. Noticing it was past my bedtime, I self-diagnosed that I was tired and went to bed, despite these being symptoms of concussion. Clearly, we need to more precisely distinguish the claim. – Oddthinking Feb 12 '18 at 17:02
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    I have edited in another quote from the second article that makes clear that the contradiction is "versus letting a doctor doing the diagnosis" (and edited the title accordingly) –  Feb 12 '18 at 18:46

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