Got a headache? Stuffy
nose? Inexplicable earlobe pain? The Internet can help.
Each of the websites listed in this section will allow you to answer
questions about
the symptoms you are experiencing, find out what condition or conditions
might be
causing them, and make recommendations about your course of action.
Alcohol Screening Instrument
This test, designed to screen for hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption
patterns, is based upon the World Health Organization’s Alcohol
Use Disorders Identification Test. It is completely anonymous, requiring
participants only to list their age and gender before answering 12
questions about their alcohol-related behaviors. The site will then
offer an analysis of the user’s drinking patterns and suggestions
for further action.
BladderZone: Symptom Checker
Complete this brief questionnaire, comprised entirely of “yes/no” questions,
and bring it with you to your physician to help determine whether
you might suffer from urinary incontinence or other bladder problems,
as well as to assess how significant an impact your symptoms have
on your daily life.
Health Illustrated Encyclopedia: Symptom Reference
No symptom, whether serious or minor, everyday or very rare, is excluded
from this enormous alphabetical index of aches, pains, and swellings.
Whatever your symptom, look it up here to find an explanation of
it, often with helpful illustrations or diagrams. For each complaint,
the encyclopedia also lists common and less-common causes; click
on the name of a potentially responsible disorder to link to additional
information about it.
Health Risk Assessment
Rather than evaluating symptoms of heart disease, injury, or infection,
this site—a service of the good folks at Pfizer—is designed
to assess potential “symptoms” of an unhealthy or unsafe
lifestyle. A brief registration is required, after which users will
answer questions about their habits in a wide variety of areas and
receive an assessment of their overall health risk. Visitors can
also access supplemental resources, including a listing of the top
10 causes of death in the United States.
Men’s
Health Symptom Checker
This symptom checker’s format—a branching series of questions
about your symptoms, with each “yes/no” question leading
to another until a cause is suggested—is similar to that used
by many of the other resources listed in Family Medicine Net Guide;
it is based on the popular reference text entitled the Harvard Medical
School Family Health Guide. However, this one focuses on problems
as they affect male patients, especially genital pain and urinary
problems (blood in urine, loss of control, painful urination, etc).
NYU Psychiatry Screening Tools
Patients who feel that they may suffer from a mental disorder can
assess their symptoms using one of the excellent tools available
here through the Department of Psychiatry at New York University.
Specific resources include the “Online Depression Screening
Test,” the “Online Anxiety Screening Test,” a tool
for “Online Screening of Personality Disorders,” and
two tests to screen for sexual disorders (one each for men and women).
Each evaluation consists of 10 multiple choice questions; the site
will never attempt a diagnosis based on the subject’s answers,
but may recommend further testing by a healthcare professional.
Stress Quiz
Everyone experiences some measure of stress as they go about their
daily lives; determining when stress reaches an unhealthy level is
the mission of this site, part of the Canadian Web portal Medbroadcast.
Visitors are asked to answer several questions about their behavioral
responses to stressful situations and to indicate which (if any)
of several common stress-related physical symptoms they have experienced.
The site then offers an analysis of how well the visitor is dealing
with stress in his or her life, with advice on coping as appropriate.
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