Medical Students' Syndrome

[Doctoor]

Medical students' disease, also known as hypochondriasis of medical students, is a condition frequently reported in medical students, who perceive themselves to be experiencing the symptoms of the disease(s) they are studying. The condition is associated with the fear of contracting the disease in question.

During their medical education, students must learn syndromes or symptom lists of various rare and malevolent diseases. As they read about these diseases, students are susceptible to believing that they exhibit a symptom or sign associated with the disease. The more they dwell on their supposed symptoms and begin to research further, the more they become convinced that they truly have the disease.

Example
For example, the student reads about a brain tumor that is associated with a headache . If, by coincidence, the individual suffers from a headache, he or she may conclude they have a brain tumor. It is not limited to medical students; anyone who reads medical material is susceptible. However, it is most frequently observed in medical students.

Jerome K. Jerome describes the effect as experienced by a layman in his book {Three Men in a Boat}:

I remember going to the British Museum one day to read up the treatment for some slight ailment of which I had a touch—hay fever, I fancy it was. I got down the book, and read all I came to read; and then, in an unthinking moment, I idly turned the leaves, and began to indolently study diseases, generally. I forget which was the first distemper I plunged into—some fearful, devastating scourge, I know—and, before I had glanced half down the list of "premonitory symptoms," it was borne in upon me that I had fairly got it.
I sat for awhile, frozen with horror; and then, in the listlessness of despair, I again turned over the pages. I came to typhoid fever—read the symptoms—discovered that I had typhoid fever, must have had it for months without knowing it—wondered what else I had got; turned up St. Vitus's Dance—found, as I expected, that I had that too,—began to get interested in my case, and determined to sift it to the bottom, and so started alphabetically—read up ague, and learnt that I was sickening for it, and that the acute stage would commence in about another fortnight...
 

This syndrome is becoming more common as people use the Internet and come to their doctors anxiously clutching various print-outs of rare disease symptoms, whereas probably all they have is something common and benign. It is part of the downside of the free and opulent information flow available on-line, especially where that information is either of dubious quality or is accessed by an amateur who cannot temper the information with a reasoned and informed opinion.

This is not to say they do not have the disease, but to make an ill-informed decision before consulting with a trained medical doctor can affect a patients mental health through unnecessary stress and worry....

Have you experienced such a condition? tell us your story?
Doctoor

[Waxbaro!]

Thanks Doctoor for this interesting topic

[Diagnostic]

Yes I have seen this case before, it happened to my classmate when we were medical students, he thought he has diabetes and he did several investigations.

He told me that he is polyuric and polydypsic and his father is diabetic, so he has diabetes???

When the doctor knew that we are medical students, he told us that my friend is suffering from what is called "Medical Student's disease".
Diagnostic

[Dr.Adnan]

KKKKKKKK
Really funny, I hope it does not happen to you guys, Insha Allah

[Naomy Grace]

looooool

wallah sometimes i get this too lool

like the other day we had symptoms of nephrotitis..and i thought i had it ...i was sure wallh...and even started to feel some pain hehehe

but when i told my friend about my (case) lol....she told me about this syndrome..i was reliefed lol

[Penguin]

lol guilty right here...recently I thought I had CSF leaking from my nose because of a brain tumour...of course does not require the extensive investigations to rule it out like your friend did Diagnositic

[Doctoor]

  penguin...

I think you had a common cold and you diagnosed your self with brain tumor?

[Penguin]

lol its a darn allergy that won't go away

[Dr.keyf]

Ah the good ol paranoia....lets see,over the past 5yrs ive had fake diabetes,breast n ovarian cancer,brain tumors,gastric carcinoma,n the list goes on.but actually its pretty hilarious when u think of it.n the good thing wid this syndrome is tht u get over it quickly as soon as u move on to the next subject.

oh,my bad manners,i hvnt introduced myself.am dr keyf,in pakistan.not much of a poster on websites but i promise ill try frm now on.
n penguin,i must say tht urs is the most hilarious paranoia of all(in a good way).ive actually never seen a person who thought they were leaking csf,looooooooool

[Moha]

yeah its all true everybody feels the same...but i recently read from a book that when somebody learns something new and they attach a little bit of emotion to it,they will have a better chance of recalling that same event....the book is called LEARN FASTER REMEMBER MORE...so in a way its a human phenomenon to attach an emotion to something they really need to recall...so may be thats why medical students ay marar badan u dareemaan wax yaabahan oo kale because the more ay wixi dareemaan the more likely it will be for it to get fixed and become part of their long memory storage department!!!..and in case i m sure ppl like Keyf might remember the Carcinomas she mentioned more than most of us!!!

[Abdullahi!]

yeah its all true everybody feels the same...but i recently read from a book that when somebody learns something new and they attach a little bit of emotion to it,they will have a better chance of recalling that same event....the book is called LEARN FASTER REMEMBER MORE...so in a way its a human phenomenon to attach an emotion to something they really need to recall...so may be thats why medical students ay marar badan u dareemaan wax yaabahan oo kale because the more ay wixi dareemaan the more likely it will be for it to get fixed and become part of their long memory storage department!!!..and in case i m sure ppl like Keyf might remember the Carcinomas she mentioned more than most of us!!!

This analysis seems to be true!
Anyway thanks for the topic

[Amal]

Ha ha,
            It happens to me all the time. I remember one time after learning cardiac system, I got sick, and when I went to see my Doc, first thing he asked me was, what are you going to school for? I was trying to relate my symptoms to Angina!!!. I understand medical students are the most difficult patient to deal with.

[Leila]

yes,i'm guilty as charged.i thought i was diabetic too coz of polyuria,it turns out that i had too much mineral water...