Psych Central

Psych Central is an independent mental health information and news website. Psych Central is overseen by mental health professionals who create and oversee all the content published on the site. The site was created in 1995. The site was named as one of the Internet's 50 Best Websites in 2008 by Time,[3] and has approximately 6 million unique visitors per month.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] PsychCentral was acquired by Healthline in 2020.[13]

Psych Central
HeadquartersNewburyport, Massachusetts[1][2]
OwnerHealthline
Websitepsychcentral.com

Features

This psychiatric website has over 250 support groups spread out over two communities: Psych Central Forums and a neurological support community, NeuroTalk. The combined membership of these two communities is over 550,000 members.[14][15] Consumers are Psych Central's target audience but the site also includes a section for professionals.[11][12][16][17][18]

Psych Central hosts two advice services on its website:

  • "Ask the Therapist" is a team of licensed, credential therapists who have responded to over 5,800 questions.
  • Similar to Medhelp.org, "Psych Central Answers" has allowed other users to answer another 8,400 questions.[5][11]

Psych Central has over 100 blogs[19] that are written by psychologists, psychiatrists and people with lived experience, as well as a mental health news bureau that publishes up to five stories per day. One of the more prominent blogs is devoted to celebrity mental health issues.[12][20]

The site has a large collection of mental health and psychology articles that discuss the symptoms and treatments of mental illness, personality, parenting, relationships, and related topic areas.[21][22][23][24][25]

Other features include dozens[26] of tests and screening measures, including an Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD), mania and obsessive-compulsive disorder test and a Narcissistic Personality Quiz.[27][28][29][30][31][32]

History

Psych Central was founded by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. in 1991. Grohol was a Florida psychology graduate student who began answering mental health questions in numerous mental health Usenet newsgroups, which he turned to after losing a friend to suicide. In 1995, Grohol began a weekly online mental health chat which continued on the Psych Central website. Grohol stated that one of the reasons he founded Psych Central was because he lost his childhood best friend to untreated depression.[33][5][11][34][35][36][37]

In 2011, the journal Pediatrics was criticized by Psych Central for publishing a paper on "Facebook depression," which Psych Central called a "made-up term for a phenomenon that doesn't exist."[38]

In 2009 a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience suggested that marijuana could potentially provide relief from the symptoms of PTSD. The research was reviewed by Psych Central.[39]

Evaluation and criticism

The journal Health and Social Work ran an analysis on the quality of online health-related information regarding schizophrenia. WebMD scored the highest with a 91 percent endorsement. MedicineNet.com had an 89 percent endorsement rate, and Psych Central's section called "Schizophrenia and Psychosis" (http://psychcentral.com/disorders) had an 88 percent endorsement rate. The journal concluded that all sites examined offered quality information on schizophrenia.[40]

The journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking ran an analysis on the quality of online mental health-related information across the 11 most commonly-searched for mental disorders. The researchers found that search engines "regularly returned Web sites that were of good or better quality health information." Psych Central was cited as one of the top two mental health-focused Web sites returning search results for this analysis.[41]

In 2001 the Los Angeles Times cautioned that Psych Central "...is as much a vehicle for self-promotion as it is a consumer guide. [Grohol] advertises his book...He spends less energy doing evaluations of outside resources."[22]

References
  1. Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online, "Dr. Grohol is currently a senior Web architect and founder of an Internet consulting and Web services company, Liviant LLC."
  2. about
  3. Anita Hamilton, PsychCentral, Time Magazine, 2008
  4. SimilarWeb, , April 29, 2020.
  5. Alain Brunet, Andrea R. Ashbaugh, Christophe F. Herbert, Internet Use in the Aftermath of Trauma. Citing Grohol's own 1995 book, Page 17. Six citations in this book.
  6. Andy Lock, Tom Strong, Discursive Perspectives in Therapeutic Practice,(2012) Page 157
  7. Psych Central
  8. Akst: Coping with seasonal affective disorder, Daily Chronicle, (January 9, 2014), "an online mental health social network", (subscription required).
  9. Simmy Richman, Mummy's little helper, a retail Jedi, Gwynnie's goop and big it up for 'Big Brother', The Independent, (January 12, 2014)
  10. Diagnosing the problem, The Pan American (University of Texas), (November 7, 2013).
  11. Psych Central, PBS
  12. Target Mental Health Concerns for Psych Central Cyberink, Inside Health Media, (November 23, 2011).
  13. "Healthline Media Acquires PsychCentral, Bolstering Healthline's Role as the Top Digital Health Publisher". 2020-08-14. Retrieved 2021-01-18.
  14. , Psych Central Forums index, April 29, 2020.
  15. , NeuroTalk index, April 29, 2020.
  16. Dr. John Grohol, Huffington Post
  17. Author of My Schizophrenic Life Named a 2012 Face of Mental Illness - Her Second Award, India Pharma News, (August 19, 2012).
  18. Lesley Alderman, How to Find Mental Health Care When Money Is Tight, The New York Times, (November 21, 2009).
  19. , Psych Central Blogs index, June 19, 2014.
  20. Tara Parker-Pope, Celebrities and Mental Health, New York Times, (December 10, 2008).
  21. Benedict Carey, Your Health Online; Sites Geared Toward Easing Anxiety and Panic, Los Angeles Times, (October 1, 2001).
  22. Benedict Care, Say 'Aaah'; Your Health Online; Before You Get On The Virtual Couch, Los Angeles Times, (January 1, 2001).
  23. Web Sites to calm the troubled soul, The Irish Times, (May 25, 1998), Pg. 16, "Psych Central (www.grohol.com/grohol.htm) is probably the Internet's best starting off point for information on mental health."
  24. Net surfing for health, The Star-Ledger, June 1, 1997, Pg. 6, "Psych Central" site (at www.coil.com/grohol/) is a definitive on-line listing of all Web sites, mailing lists, newsgroups and support information for on-line mental health."
  25. Net Worth; There's a World of Health Information on the Internet, But It's Hard to Know What's Reliable, The Washington Post, (April 22, 1997), Pg. Z12, "Online psychologist John Grohol's "Psych Central" site (at www.coil.com/ grohol/) is a definitive online listing of all Web sites, mailing lists, newsgroups and support information for online mental health."
  26. , Psych Central Quizzes index, June 19, 2014.
  27. Challenges of adult ADHD, American Medical News, Vol. 55 No. 35, (August 27, 2012).
  28. Two words you should never say to an irate customer; A weekly roundup of tips for managers, The Globe and Mail, August 28, 2012
  29. Simon Doonan, My Narcissism Wears Spanx; How to be vain without being a jerk, Slate Magazine, (June 7, 2012).
  30. The Hunt for Red October, Medical Marketing and Media, (February 2012), Pg. 32
  31. Maureen Dowd, Ritalin For America, The New York Times, (July 6, 2003).
  32. Colin Clews, Show your true colours; FIT Mind, Sydney Morning Herald, (August 23, 2001), Pg. 16.
  33. Darrel Rowland and Catherine Candisky, mental-health system made a few improvements this year, (December 29, 2013)
  34. Parenting; Kids' aggressive behavior tied to TV violence in studies, The Columbus Dispatch, (February 18, 2013).
  35. Kayode Olaitan, What Are Your New Year's Resolutions?, Daily Trust (Abuja), December 27, 2012.
  36. Women moan during sex to help men climax, Ramanujam, (October 17, 2012).
  37. Pamela Robinson, Depression still a problem for Americans, Gainesville Daily Register (October 8, 2010).
  38. Something fishy with new television study, Alberni Valley Times, (September 21, 2011).
  39. Could Medical Marijuana Benefit Fort Hood Trauma Victims?, Digital Journal, November 6, 2009
  40. Guada, Joseph; Venable, Victoria, A comprehensive analysis of the quality of online health-related information regarding schizophrenia; Report, Health and Social Work, (February 1, 2011), Pg. 45(9).
  41. Grohol, John; Slimowicz, Joseph; Granda, Rebecca, The quality of mental health information commonly searched for on the Internet; Study, Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, (April, 2014), Pg. 219.
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