In sickness and in health

Barbara had been diagnosed as depressive and was under treatment for the condition for several years before she discovered that she was bipolar. She signed up on a networking website and rigorously monitored her moods through charts on her profile page. It was here that she noticed how frequently her mood fluctuations went from being very good to very bad. She printed out the charts, took them to her therapist and discussed what this could mean. The result was a change in her diagnosis and a resultant change in treatment. She says, “Patientslikeme is the main reason I concluded I had been misdiagnosed depressive instead of bipolar and just recently decided to try new medication.”

Thomas, similarly, was able to see from peer charts online that the dosage of medicine he was being given for his multiple sclerosis condition was the lowest prescribed for people like him and had remained at that level for ten years. Armed with this information, he went back to his doctor who decided to increase his dosage. Soon after, his worst symptoms subsided. This is how he describes his experience: “For years, I had always taken just 10 mg of Baclofen. I was told long ago by my neuro that ‘too much Baclofen can cause weak legs’… Then I sign up here, I take a peak at what you guys are doing, and find out I don’t take enough Baclofen to deal with my symptoms. I give the neuro a call… and now I am much, much better.”

Welcome to the world of online medical networking. Patientslikeme is a medical or health networking website, a concept that is becoming more and more popular with people wanting more control over decisions about their health and medication.

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Read the whole story on the health networking phenomenon in Open magazine…