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I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

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Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

#101

Post by ponector »

malfist wrote: post #93
jfindper wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> About 70% of hospital deaths are due to preventable mistakes in the hospital. It's awful that you had a bad experience, but no. Nowhere near 70% of hospital deaths are from preventable mistakes. I would also note that in your experience, you ended up trusting a different doctor (ophthalmologist), not ChatGPT. Second opinions from other qualified professionals is a thumbs up from me.

I would add to your note, that the person that was correct in their care was the actual expert. Doctors are experts in their fields, but until they saw an ophthalmologist, they didn't see the right practitioner. Just like I wouldn't go to my podiatrist to treat a complex case of rosecea, urgent care and GCP aren't for specialized, complex and rare cases.

I think chatgpt can help to argue with doctors and get to the specialist faster.

Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

#103

Post by hiyer »

jfindper wrote: post #87
vorpalhex wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've never had "the experience". I'll share mine. Unusual severe one sided eye pain. Go to regular doctor's, explain, get told it's a "stye" and do hot compresses. Problem gets worse, I go to urgent care. Urgent care doc takes one look at me and immediately sends me to the ER saying it's severe and she can't diagnose it because she is unqualified. Go to ER, get seen by two specialists, a general practicioner and a…

> About 70% of hospital deaths are due to preventable mistakes in the hospital. It's awful that you had a bad experience, but no. Nowhere near 70% of hospital deaths are from preventable mistakes. I would also note that in your experience, you ended up trusting a different doctor (ophthalmologist), not ChatGPT. Second opinions from other qualified professionals is a thumbs up from me.

The author doesn't say don't trust doctors or trust chatgpt. He says don't trust "a single doctor" and look for a second opinion whenever possible.

Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

#104

Post by cogman10 »

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #70
blakesterz wrote: post #41

They wrote... "Turns out it was Lyme disease (yes, the real one, not the fake one) and it (nearly) progressed to meningitis" What does "not the fake one" mean, I must be missing something?

Disclaimer: not a doctor (obviously), ask someone who is qualified, but this is what the ID doctor told me: Lyme is a bacterial infection, and can be cured with antibiotics. Once the bacteria is gone, you no longer have Lyme disease. However, there is a lot of misinformation about Lyme online. Some people think Lyme is a chronic, incurable disease, which they call "chronic lyme". Often, when a celebrity tells people…

To add a few things.

The late stage of lyme disease is painful. Like "I think I'm dying" painful. It does have a range of symptoms, but those show up like 3 to 6 weeks after the initial infection.

A lot of people claiming chronic lyme disease don't remember this stage.

Lyme disease does cause a range of problems if left untreated. But not before the "I think I'm dying" stage. It's basically impossible for someone, especially with a lot of wealth, to get lyme disease and not have it caught early on.

Consider the OP's story. They tried to not treat it but ended up thinking "OMG, I think I have meningitis and I'm going to die!".

Lyme can kill, but it rarely does. Partially because before it gets to that point it drives people to seek medical attention.

Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

#105

Post by OutOfHere »

An LLM is just a hypothesis generator, as is a doctor. Both can be wrong. Only a doctor can be dismissive though; an LLM is never dismissive, which scores it an extra point.

It is up to you to query them for the best output, and put the pieces together. If you bias them wrongly, it's your own fault.

For every example where an LLM misdiagnosed, a PCP could do much worse. People should think of them as idea generators, subjecting the generated ideas to diagnostic validation tests. If an idea doesn't pan out, keep querying until you hit upon the right idea.

Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

#107

Post by tomhow »

nataliste wrote: post #94
jfindper wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree with you, and reading some of the takes in this thread is actually blowing my mind. I cannot believe that the top-voted comment right now is saying to not trust doctors, use an LLM to diagnose yourself and others.

[flagged]

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Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

#108

Post by SoftTalker »

cogman10 wrote: post #32
SoftTalker wrote: post #4

More generally don't try to be your own doctor. Whether you're using LLMs or just searching the web for symptoms, it's way too easy for an untrained person to get way off track. If you want to be a doctor, go to medical school. Otherwise talk to someone who did.

Eh, depends a little. I think most of the population has experienced and can diagnose/treat the flu or a minor cut. It's anything beyond that which I think needs medical attention.

Yes, agree. Some stuff is obvious. I don't need Google to tell me what to do for the flu or a cut, and I've never searched for that.

If I had some weird symptoms that I didn't understand, or even well known warning signs for something, I'd go to a doctor. What is Google going to tell me that I can trust or even evaluate? I don't know anything about internal medicine, I'll ask someone who studied it for 8 years and works in the field professionally.

Re: I misused LLMs to diagnose myself and ended up bedridden for a week

#109

Post by bdangubic »

SoftTalker wrote: post #108
cogman10 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh, depends a little. I think most of the population has experienced and can diagnose/treat the flu or a minor cut. It's anything beyond that which I think needs medical attention.

Yes, agree. Some stuff is obvious. I don't need Google to tell me what to do for the flu or a cut, and I've never searched for that. If I had some weird symptoms that I didn't understand, or even well known warning signs for something, I'd go to a doctor. What is Google going to tell me that I can trust or even evaluate? I don't know anything about internal medicine, I'll ask someone who studied it for 8 years and wo…

> I'll ask someone who studied it for 8 years and works in the field professionally.

if you can afford that, many can’t

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