Links
Patients with access to the Internet can tap into a nearly limitless sea of information. Since an individual with a modicum of technological expertise can post on the Web whatever information, assertion of opinion he or she wishes, the Web reader must be prepared to be cautious and skeptical. While truth overwhelms falsehood and error in the long-run, in the short-run the Internet browser must beware. We cannot vouch for the accuracy of all of the information on many sites listed, either at the time of the writing or when this list is read. Still, we believe that the following sites will be found to be useful and, in the main, trustworthy. The sites for patients are organized by mental disorder and categories. The clinician is urged to visit a site before recommending it to a patient.
Sites Providing Broad Access or Information Suited to Clinicians
Mental Health Net
http://www.mentalhealth.com
An online encyclopedia concerning the most common mental disorders and the most commonly prescribed psychotropic drugs. The information about treatments reflects the biases of the psychiatric author. The site's Mental Health Magazine contains news from other Internet newspapers and magazines and online booklets from professional organizations and support groups.
Mental Health Net
http://www.mhnet.org
One of the largest and most comprehensive guides to mental health information and resources online, featuring about 6000 resources on the Internet. Also includes self-help resources, a reading room, discussion groups and a searchable calendar of events related to specific mental disorders.
Mental Health Information Center
http://www.mhsource.com
Published by CME Inc., the site contains an ask-the-expert forum, a chat room for discussing psychiatric topics, eductional material and an alphabetical directory of World Wide Web links organized by topic. The site's OCD page http://www.mhsource.com/disorders/ocd/html features answers by experts to questions about OCD related problems.
Mental Health Resources at Western Psychiatric Institute, Pittsburgh
http://www.wpic.pitt.edu/psychiat.htm
The site lists Internet directories, access to U.S. government research sites, online text fo the British Medical Journal, slides prepared by members of the Department of Psychiatry for lectures on selected mental disorders, and information about ongoing research at Western Psychiatric Insitutue and Clinic.
National Library of Medicine Hyperdoc
http://www.nlm.nih.gov
The federal goverment's National Library of Medicine site provides access to the Library's book catalogue and to Medline and other online databases, allowing bibliographic searches of the owrld's published medical journal articles.
Pharminfonet
http://www.pharminfo.com
The site contains information about drug uses and side effects, with a focus on news releases regarding new drug therapies. The site has links to various information centers regarding classes of medications and specific drugs.
Psychopharmacology
http://uhs.bsd.uchicago.edu/dr-bob/tips.html
From the University of Chicago's Department of Psychiatry, the site contains psychopharmacology tips posted by the Interpsych psychopharmacology discussion groups run by Ivan Goldberg, M.D., and access to detailed drug monographs. The site's search engine can search for a specific catagory of drugs or side effect posted on its bulletin board.
Psychopharmacology
http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.html
This site, which is devoted to mood disorders, is managed by Ivan Goldberg, M.D., and is an excellent source of online psychopharmacology articles, psychopharmacology tips emailed in by clinicians, and links to other psychopharmacology sites.
Sites that can be Recommended to Patients
Mental Health (General)
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill
http://www.nami.org
National Mental Health Association
http://www.nmha.org
Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Alcoholics Anonymous
http://www.alcoholics-anonymous.org
Online AA Resources
http://www.recovery.org/aa/homepage.html
Attention Deficit Disorder
Children and Adults with Attention Deficit Disorders (CHADD)
http://www.chadd.org
National Attention-Deficit Disorder Association
http://www.add.org
Depressive Disorders
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health_information_library/index.html?ArticleID=21882
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
http://www.ndmda.org/
Eating Disorders
Nonparaphilic Sexual Disorders
Sexaholics Anonymous
http://www.sa.org
Sexual Addicts Anonymous
http://www.sexaa.org
Sexual Compulsives Anonymous (SCA)
http://www.sca-recovery.org
The National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity
http://www.ncsac.org
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Foundation
http://www.ocfoundation.org
http://www.miminc.org/aboutocic.html
OCD Center of Los Angeles
http://www.ocdla.com
http://www.rogershospital.org/ocd/ocd.htm
Obsessive Compulsive Anonymous (OCA)
http://members.aol.com/west24th/index.html
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) -- OCD
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/ocd.cfm
Pathological Gambling
Gamblers Anonymous
http://www.gamblersanonymous.org
Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey
http://www.800gambler.org
Trichotillomania
The Trichotillomania Learning Center
http://www.trich.org/
Tourette's Syndrome
National Tourette Syndrome Association, Inc.
http://tsa.mgh.harvard.edu
Tourette in Mentalhealth
http://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p40-gtor.html
Usenet Groups
Usenet is an international and extremely large, decentralized information utility. It hosts well over 1200 newsgroups, and several thousand pages of new technical articles, news and discussion are added daily. Because of this daily volume, the messages cannot be kept idenfinitely for online access and expire after a time. The information in Usenet groups has not been filtered or verified for accuracy by experts or professionals. It simply represents the opinions of the infividuals who post the information and should not be relied upon as if it were professional medical advice.
Usenet groups can be 'unmoderated' (i.e., anyone can post a message) or 'moderated' (i.e., submissions are automatically directed to a moderator, who edits and then posts the results). Some newsgroups have parallel mailing lists for Internet users with no netnews access; the postings to the e-mail list and vice versa. More than anything else, Usenet is an electronic comminity. A patient can browse through a news group or search it using one of the search engines.
The following newsgroups may be of interest to patients with particular conditions or to their significant others.
Attention Deficit Disorder:
alt.support.attn-deficit
Body Dysmorphic Disorder:
alt.support.ocd
alt.support.anxiety-panic
alt.support.depression
Clutters Anonymous :
alt.recovery.clutter
alt.recovery.procrastination
Hypochondriasis:
alt.med.fibromyalgia
alt.med.cfs
alt.support.anxiety-panic
sci.med.diseases.lyme
alt.support.ibs
sci.psychology.psychotherapy
alt.support.crohns-colitis
alt.support.ocd
Kleptomania:
alt.support.depression
soc.support.depression.manic
Nonparaphilic Sexual Disorders:
alt.recovery.addiction.sexual
alt.recovery.sexual-addiction
sci.psychology.psychotherapy
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder:
alt.support.ocd
alt.support.anxiety-panic
sci.med.psychobiology
Pathological Gambling:
soc.support.depression.manic
alt.suicide
alt.abuse.recovery
alt.gambling
alt.recovery
alt.recovery.codependency
alt.support.abuse-partners
Tourette's Syndrome:
alt.support.tourette
Trichotillomania:
alt.baldspot
alt.support.ocd