Educational Computing

ACADEMIC PSYCHIATRY 141

Useful Websites for Psychiatrists

Thomas Kramer, M.D.Robert Kennedy, M.A.

It is easy to meander around the variousplaces on the World Wide Web (WWW)

reading information on any topic or idea. Itis becoming a central repository of what weknow, and it is growing at a phenomenalrate. For better or for worse, this growth is,for the most part, uncontrolled. Comparingthe WWW with a child’s brain would be anappropriate analogy. There are millions ofconnections moving and processing infor-mation each day. Like a child, this stream ofinformation is not organized or structuredin a way that can be easily understood orassimilated.

Much as a child sizes up a complex se-ries of social events, learns some informa-tion, but does not fully grasp the volume ofdata that transpires, this immature Web,full of numerous transactions and interac-tions, does not allow us to synthesize or or-ganize all this volume of information better.To continue the analogy, when the childmoves into adolescence and begins to un-derstand the subtleties of social behavior,the Web will as it matures offer us a moreorganized approach to our interactions withthis incredible network.

Currently, the Web is a toddler. Manyof us are both excited and frustrated withour involvement with this new medium.We are frustrated because finding anythingis a discovery process. A search can yield somuch good—and bad—information; it ishard to differentiate the important from thetrivial, and it is a time-consuming task toprioritize the data.

There are many websites, but few thatyou visit and say “This site is great, I want

to come back and explore some more!” Thereason for this may be that the Web is a re-markable democracy, in which all things aregiven equal standing—all the “real estate”has an equally valuable location. Good andbad, interesting and boring, mundane andbizarre, these sites all have addresses on theWeb that are equally easy to visit. You maycome across simple websites put togetherby an individual as a personal webpage,which may show a picture of the person,his/her educational background, researchinterests, resume, other favorite websites, oranything else of his/her choosing. There aretribute sites devoted to strange things, suchas the “Pez Prozac” dispenser website.There are elaborate, well-funded websitesfor the medical profession such as Physi-cians Online.

A number of components contribute tomaking a good website interesting, infor-mative, or entertaining. Sites based on bet-ter, more powerful computers or connec-tions have a faster speed of access, that is,webpages that draw quickly and give youinformation quickly. Too many complexframes or graphics can make the WWW be-come the “World Wide Wait” as sites takeforever to download/draw on your screen.Advertising is a fact of life on the Web, likemost other media, and advertising can sub-sidize some wonderful free sites for thepublic, especially for physicians, but someof the advertising can be intrusive and jar-ring. Obnoxious animated graphics can runacross the screen or tell you to spend moneyor to buy a product. Too many websitesbombard you with every color ever created.

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A website should be easy to navigate andnot so complex that you cannot even findthe button to move onto the next page.

What follows is a highly subjective, ar-bitrary, and incomplete list of websites thatwe would recommend for you, the practic-ing psychiatrist, which you might find in-teresting and useful.

The American Psychiatric Association:www.psych.org

This site is a vast, well-planned, and fre-quently updated site that has a tremendousamount of information for today’s psychi-atrist. Here you will find everything, fromthe latest legislation that is important toknow about, to information about upcom-ing meetings, conferences, and symposia.There is also a listing of the various nationaldistrict branches that have a site of theirown. There are too few, but the ones thatare listed contain information relevant toyour area. Not only are they excellent forannouncements to help keep you updated,but also some have on-line journals or per-tinent articles to read. This site is an impor-tant bookmark for your browser.

American Psychiatric Press, Inc (APPI):www.appi.org

The site is devoted to this important pub-lishing arm of the American Psychiatric As-sociation. It offers information and abstractsfrom their latest publications—books andjournals. Customers can also order on-lineas well.

Mental Health Infosource:www.mhsource.com

This site comes from the group thatpublishes the Psychiatric Times. This largewebsite offers interesting reading, news inpsychiatry, journal articles of interest, book-store offerings, and much more.

Dr. Bob’s Psychopharmacology Tips:www.uhs.bsd.uchicago.edu/bhsiung/tips

This is probably the best resource in psy-chopharmacology anywhere—not just onthe Web. Dr. Hsiung is a talented psychia-trist from Chicago who has pulled togetherthe reference for psychopharmacology tips.

Clinical Pharmacology Online:www.cponline.gsm.com

Regular readers of our recent column mayremember our enthusiasm about the soft-ware package called “Clinical Pharmacol-ogy,” put out by Gold Standard Multime-dia. A somewhat watered-down freeversion exists online, and a complete onlineversion is available for subscribers.

PDR Interactive:www.medecinteractive.com

This site is the Physician’s Desk Reference on-line, with various ease-of-use software im-provements to get you to what you need toknow quickly. The site is a lot easier to use(and a lot less heavy) than that big book onyour desk.

Medscape:www.medscape.com

This site is a comprehensive informationand news service for physicians. It requiresregistering (with your DEA number) to getthe most out of the service, but it gives youfree MEDLINE searches, full-text review ar-ticles, specialty-specific news, and probablythe best psychiatry section of any Internetservice to date.

Physicians Online:www.po.com

Another physician-only registered websitethat offers free MEDLINE and othersearches. The site is not as good for psychi-

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ACADEMIC PSYCHIATRY 143

atry as Medscape but does offer online dis-cussions and a free e-mail address accountfor members.

Doctors Guide to the Internet:www.docguide.com

This site is not specific to psychiatry, but itis a comprehensive medical website that of-fers a tremendous amount of information,news, journals, and other relative informa-tion. There is a professional edition for phy-sicians only, and you can personalize thissite to focus on your interests.

Computers for Psychiatrists:www.computerpsych.com

This is our own Website, which was gener-ated by popular demand. As we taughtcomputer literacy and other more advancedcourses to psychiatrists around the country,many asked us to offer some kind of serviceto enable our attendees to continue the edu-cational process about computers and theirever-increasing uses for psychiatrists. Comevisit us here.

Psych Central:www.grohol.com

This website is Dr. John Grohol’s mentalhealth page. It is described as “your person-

alized one-stop index for psychology, sup-port, and mental health issues, resources,and people on the Internet.” Psych Centraloffers countless links to other mental healthwebsites, support groups, and news andchat groups.

Internet Mental Health:www.mentalhealth.com

This site was put together by Phillip W.Long, M.D., from Canada. The site offerspsychopharmacological information, diag-nostic information, and more. The site is de-scribed as a free encyclopedia of mentalhealth information. It seems mostly aimedat the general public, but is a good resourceas well for students, families of patients,and support groups.

Dr. Kramer is Assistant Director for Train-ing, Arkansas Mental Health Research andTraining Institute, Little Rock, AR; and Mr.Kennedy is Director of Fellowship Training andDirector of Computing Services, Department ofPsychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine,Bronx, NY. Dr. Kramer’s e-mail address istamkmd@aol.com. Mr. Kennedy’s e-mail addressis kennedy@aecom.yu.edu.