Dr. Warren has a long list of sites that he goes to for either general mental-health information or to home in on a specific illness, such as depression or anxiety. Patients can get details on cutting-edge research and the latest breakthroughs in medications. Run by New York psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg, Depression Central may be graphically boring, but it is chock full of plain-spoken information on depression, bipolar disorder and other mood ailments. It also includes abstracts from medical journals, rankings of psychiatric hospitals, links to online support groups and biographies of afflicted famous people, such as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Virginia Woolf. Dr. Krumholz is a cautious Web surfer.
People ought to stick to organizations they have a lot of confidence in.
Separate sections on the heart and strokes give detailed prevention and treatment information. Healthy people who want to avert illness can take a quick heart-disease risk quiz and get tips on healthy eating and exercise. Dr. Krumholz says the government is also an excellent source of medical information. There are lively interactive pages to teach you how to lower your cholesterol. Its obesity section has a calculator where you can assess your body mass and risk for weight-related illnesses.