Hi,

Somebody close to me has suffered from mental illness for over 1 year. 
Where on the Web can I find comprehensive, in-depth and unbiased information on 
mental health related questions? I am also very interested to know which online 
service is used by psychiatrist for expert medical information on mental 
illness. 

Thanks in advance

---

Request for Question Clarification by researcher-ga on 23 Apr 2002 14:39 PDT

Is it known what mental illness they are suffering from? Any type of 
categorization will help in narrowing answers to better resources for you.

Gl-ga,

Your friend is not alone.  According to the National Mental Health Association:

"More than 54 million Americans have a mental disorder in any given year, 
although fewer than 8 million seek treatment (SGRMH, 1999)."

"Depression and anxiety disorders — the two most common mental illnesses — each 
affect 19 million American adults annually (NIMH, 1999)."

http://www.nmha.org/infoctr/factsheets/15.cfm


There are many sites that provide basic mental health information and 
resources, but if you are looking for information on how to best help your 
friend it would be most useful to look at sites geared toward the specific 
illness he or she has been diagnosed with.  Some sites for common illnesses 
include:

The National Institute of Mental Health - Publications about various common 
illnesses:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/index.cfm

Dr. Ivan's Depression Central
http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.html

Anxiety Disorders Association of America
http://www.adaa.org/


Sites that provide basic information and answers to common questions include:

Ask the Expert - questions about many mental illnesses
http://www.mhsource.com/expert/consumer.html

The National Women's Health Information Center - mental health
http://www.4woman.gov/faq/#10

Depression Frequently Asked Questions - alt.support.depression faq (copy):
http://stripe.colorado.edu/~judy/depression/asdfaq.html

The National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association - About Mood Disorders
http://www.ndmda.org/aboutmood.html


Sites geared toward mental health professionals include:

American Psychiatric Association
http://www.psych.org/

American Psychological Association
http://www.apa.org/

Psych Web - resources for psychology students and instructors
http://www.psywww.com/

Academy of Clinical Psychology
http://www.aclinp.org/

American Board of Professional Psychology
http://www.abpp.org/

Academy for Eating Disorders
http://www.aedweb.org/


This information is not meant to replace the treatment of a qualified and 
licensed mental health professional.  Some useful tools for locating treatment 
options and support groups are:

American Psychological Association: Find a Psychologist referral number
1-800-964-2000
http://helping.apa.org/find.html

The National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association - Find a Support Group
http://www.ndmda.org/findsupportmap.html?agree=0


Regards,
Cindy


Some useful URLs (including some suggested by other Users):

Google Directory: Health > Mental Health > Directories
http://directory.google.com/Top/Health/Mental_Health/Directories/?tc=1

Yahoo Directory: Home > Health > Mental Health
http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Mental_Health/

Open directory: Top: Health: Mental Health: Professional Resources
http://dmoz.org/Health/Mental_Health/Professional_Resources/

National Institute of Mental Health
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/

The Merck Manual Home edition
(to view information, click on "interactive edition," then Chapter 7: Mental 
Health Disorders)
http://www.merckhomeedition.com/

The Center for Mental Health Knowledge Exchange Network
http://www.mentalhealth.org/

Internet Mental Health - online encyclopedia of mental health information
http://www.mentalhealth.com/

The National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association
http://www.ndmda.org/

HealthWeb - Psychological/Psychiatric General Resources
http://www.healthweb.org/browse.cfm?subjectid=79


Search terms used:

"mental health"  
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22mental+health%22

professional resources psychiatry OR psychiatrist
://www.google.com/search?
hl=en&q=professional+resources+psychiatry+OR+psychiatrist

depression
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=depression

"anxiety disorder"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22anxiety+disorder%22

Hello There!

There are many search engines to use, ://www.google.com (advance
search option) is one I use frequently.  I can only offer a broad
answer here
because "mental illness" is not specific enough to search for the
illness itself.

If you go to the search engine, you can insert the exact illness and
find a wealth of government agencies, and medical sites.

For instance:

I searched for "depression" and the first link was the National
Institute of Mental Health to be found here:

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/depressionmenu.cfm

I hope this helps.

Another source often used is the Merck Manual.  You can find it online at 
http://www.merckhomeedition.com/  There is a chapter on mental health disorders.

Hi there,

Besides the links mentioned above, here are a few more I hope are useful in 
your research.

 http://www.springbound.org/index2.html

 http://www.mhsource.com

 http://mentalhealth.about.com/health/mentalhealth/index.htm


Regards,
V
 http://www.abess.com/glossary.html

Hello

I'm not certain what illness you need further information on, but Yahoo has a 
huge listing of mental health sites: 

http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Diseases_and_Conditions/Mental_Health_Disorders/
http://dir.yahoo.com/Health/Mental_Health/

It is very likely that health professionals use the online version of 
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition:
http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/dsm4classification.htm

Good luck and thanks for using Google. If you have any further questions, 
please come back.

http://my.webmd.com/condition_center_all is a good place to start.  A great 
resource for anxiety disorders may be found at: http://www.algy.com/anxiety/ - 
psychologists use both.  Those doctors who do use the web for research, white 
papers, and so forth often have access to private portals (beyond even the 
invisible web) that are simply not available to the public.  Some of these 
portals are provided by drug companies, who have a vested interest in supplying 
physicians and psychiatrists with information and resources, as they can boost 
their own visibility via banners, links, recommendations, and so on...