Find us again!
Click here, then add the page to your Favorites or Bookmarks.

Over 175 articles on:

• Mood, anxiety
• Treatments
• Medications
• Lifestyles
• The system
• Book reviews
• Personal stories

Help support Moodletter
with $12/year? Or more?

Moodletter provides information, hope and help to people living with depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder and those who care for them. A 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

©2006-2010 Moodletter, Inc.
All rights reserved

The Internet delivers a world-wide library of information into our homes, including a vast array about mental health. Unfortunately, this includes a lot of misinformation. Get the most from the Web by learning where and how to look for information you can trust.

Where to find it
Mental health associations and government agencies are a wealth of credible information. Find many on our Online Resources page, along with other mental health sites.

Government and university sites provide reliable information on disorders and treatments: Look for .gov and .edu in your search results, for example, MedLinePlus, http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/

Find information about medications, such as its use and side effects at drug databases found on our Medications Resources page. You can also check the drug company's site, found often by doing a search for the drug name.

And, of course, Google and Yahoo can help you search for the information you’re looking for.

Discussion boards, chat rooms and blogs can be supportive places where people can share their personal experiences. You may find helpful advice, topics to discuss with your doctor and personal encouragement, but, always remember that you are reading the opinions and stories of individuals. Someone else’s experience with their illness or treatment may be very different than yours.

Always seek information from several sources; don't rely on just one.

How to find it
When using Google or another search engine, use the narrowest possible search term. If you want your result to include bipolar and medications and not just one of these words, search for bipolar +medications. If you want information about bipolar medications but not lithium, enter the search term bipolar+medications-lithium. If you want results on an exact phrase, enter it in quotes, like this "bipolar II".

Google allows you to restrict your search results by domain. To find sites only from government agencies or universities, type in the search box your search terms along with the command site:.edu or site:.gov For example: bipolar medication site:.edu

You can also use Google's advance search to narrow your search results. Here, you can add or subtract words, specify how old you want the results to be, and specify domains.

To find scholarly writings on your topics (studies, journal articles), use Google's "scholarly search." Some of this information is restricted to professionals, but many public libraries subscribe to journals and databases and allow their cardholders to access them. Check with your librarian.

How to know if it’s trustworthy

When judging a source, ask yourself:

• Who is telling me this?
• Where did they get their information?
• Is it thorough, accurate and up-to-date?

Here are some tips that may help you decide whether information is credible:

Is the information up-to-date? In the Internet world, some of what goes up, never comes down. Look for a date. You want the latest information on medications, treatments and studies.

Who is behind this web site? Look for an "About us" section or information at the bottom of the page that might identify the source of the information.

What are the author’s credentials? Is the information fact or opinion? Statements like: "Prozac is the only effective treatment for depression." are clues that the information is not trustworthy. Where did this information come from? Does the author cite credible sources? Does it quote a Harvard research team or the author's brother-in-law?

One very popular online source for mental health and medical information posts information by volunteer contributors who may lack the credentials to offer advice on such topics. The publisher advises that it does not verify credentials and that they claim no responsibility for the information they publish on the site.

Does the author have anything to gain from presenting their point of view? A site sponsored by a drug company may not cover other treatments. Is there more advertising than information?

Is the site accredited? The Health On the Net Foundation. HON is a non-profit, non-governmental organization, accredited to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. Sites holding this accreditation, including Moodletter, adhere to a Code of Conduct for medical and health web sites.

Be careful out there!

More articles

Page updated August 1, 2008