August 6, 1999

Here are some useful Web tips for psychiatrists from Steven Locke, M.D., director of the Institute of Cybermedicine in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. One of his projects is to develop computer programs for managing depression that will be used by primary care doctors and patients.

1. Incorporate Internet use with patient treatment. At his home office where he has broadband high-speed Web access, Locke can instantaneously call up Web sites, which he and his patients then view on his 20-inch monitor. For example, he and his patients have visited the site mentalhelp.net/depression, where on the right hand side there is a button for "Take a Free Depression Quiz." Locke prints out the Goldberg Depression Inventory, which his patients complete at home and then e-mail the results to him.



2. Find your own favorite sites. To do this, Locke offers two suggestions:
   
   • Visit "John Grohol's Psychology Web Pointer" at www.behavior.net/grohol/web.html. Maintained by psychologist John Grohol, Ph.D., this page features hundreds of mental health Web sites. Each has a brief description, and outstanding ones are marked with a star icon. "I find his assessments to be quite good," said Locke.
   
   
   
   • To search on an esoteric subject or do a thorough search, Locke suggests using a metasearch tool, which issues search requests to several Web search sites. He often uses Metacrawler, which simultaneously searches through Yahoo, Excite, and several other search engines.
   
   
   
   • To save time, bookmark the sites you like. "Bookmark" helps you return easily and quickly to a Web site without having to type in the site's URL address. To bookmark a site using Internet Explorer, click on "Favorites" in the menu bar and select "Add to Favorites." To bookmark a site using Netscape, choose "Bookmarks" from the menu bar, then select "Add bookmark." Next time you want to visit a bookmarked site, click on "Favorites" on the menu bar and then click on the site name.
   
   


3. Take advantage of services that send regular e-mail alerts. For example, Locke receives weekly e-mail updates from Medscape summarizing what's new on its site including articles. To subscribe, look at the top of the Medscape site and click on "My Medscape," and follow the directions. Also, APA offers an e-mail news services. To subscribe, go to APA's Web site at , click on "Online News," and follow the directions.