Doctor Warns Against AI Self‑Diagnosis
We often observe patients dropping my prescription into ChatGPT
HYDERABAD: A government psychiatrist in Hyderabad reported a case where a patient attempted to rely on an AI‑generated report for diagnosis instead of medical consultation.
Dr Raghuveer Raju Boosa, assistant professor of Psychiatry at the Institute of Mental Health, said a 30‑year‑old IT employee came for his first consultation carrying a 10‑page report generated using ChatGPT, after entering symptoms and answering multiple questions. The patient sought to establish his condition based on the document.
Dr Boosa explained that the tool “over‑validates and invalidates a lot of symptoms. For example, if you say you have a headache, it may suggest brain bleed as one possibility, though not with this severity.” The patient was eventually diagnosed with Obsessive‑Compulsive Disorder (OCD) with health‑related obsessions, accompanied by illness‑anxiety features. “They constantly worry—‘I believe I have an illness, I have headache, I have body ache,’” he said.
By contrast, the AI report suggested electrolyte, endocrine, and nutritional deficits. “We are treating him and he is responding,” Dr Boosa added.
He cautioned that this was not an isolated case. “We often observe patients dropping my prescription into ChatGPT. This is personal information, and we never know what the platform is doing with those details,” psychiatrists warned.
