Mind Meds: On-line Doctors
Are on-line doctors legitimate? Are they safe to use?
There’s no simple answer to this question. On-line doctors are as varied in know-how, effectiveness, knowledge base, and reliability, as off-line ones! On-line doctors are available in a variety of formats, with a wide range of expertise, availability, and cost among them. Some web sites, such as WebMD©, offer huge databases of information so that users can easily access information on hundreds of diseases and their treatment. One site I particularly like, although not featuring on line doctors, has a massive database (from the National Library of Medicine) on published studies and reviews of just about every topic in medicine and related fields. This site is called PubMed©.
Many (probably too many) web sites offer medication by mail. You can buy practically any type of medication, controlled or non-controlled, on the Web. These sites usually ask the consumer to complete a health questionnaire on-line, or they ask the consumer to actually submit a doctor’s written prescription. Buying drugs on the internet is a tricky proposition. Many of these sites claim to have on-line doctors who are reviewing the customer’s health survey. The vendor then mails a bottle of pills, the label of which contains the name of the M.D. who supposedly reviewed your health information and then went ahead and wrote the prescription. If you try to call the vendor with a question or a problem regarding medications you have ordered, it near impossible to get a live, responsible person who can field these questions and provide a satisfactory answer or solution.
In addition, many of the on-line doctors and on-line prescriptions originate from remote parts of the world. After your transaction with the on-line doctor and the on-line pharmacy, you may end up receiving a suspicious looking parcel (yes, in a plain brown wrapper) often originating in Canada, Mexico, or India. The pills themselves rarely look or taste anything like the ones you’re used to getting in this country. So you don’t really know what you’re taking, in terms of purity, in terms of additives, and most important, in terms of safety.
One variant on the on-line doctor theme is the on-line therapy business. People seeking help for depression, addiction, relationship problems, anxiety—you name it—will find therapists (either social workers, psychologists, or addiction counselors) eager to work with them on line, by phone, in chat rooms, and/or by instant messaging. The fees for this kind of on line doctor service are not minimal. You are paying for the therapist’s time. Again, the quality of this type of therapeutic arrangement is highly variable, and depends largely on the ethics, ability, training, and professionalism of the voice on the other end of the phone.
On-line doctors also vary in their usefulness to you. Most will not offer prescriptions but some will be able to give you solid advice on your options regarding treatment, prognosis, and cost. Mind-Meds doctors offer on-line doctor/patient interactive sessions, with a specific focus on the possible benefit of one or more medications to you. Since our doctors have spent their professional lives training, treating, and documenting their work, you are likely to have a very positive and hopefully therapeutic outcome as a result of speaking or texting with one of our doctors.