Use a grain of salt when searching for help online

There are tens of thousands of online self-help programs and businesses with apps and websites that tout their DIY approach to managing everything from addiction and depression to chronic pain and insomnia. A 2015 study found around 15,000 disease-specific health apps are available, and fully a third of those deal with mental health. Some are free and some charge a fee for their “courses.” For example, there’s Depression Cure Hypnosis ($39), Stop Symptoms of Adult, Teen or Youth Depression, and Find Happiness.

Fortunately, some apps are medically reliable. Take the U.S. Department of Defense’s creation: PTSD Coach. It’s a free smartphone app that lets anyone learn about PTSD and track his or her own symptoms, and it offers help developing coping skills, doing visualization exercises and setting up a support network of friends and family members. It’s been downloaded 150,000 times. In one small study, 80 per cent of users said it provided help managing symptoms and finding solutions to their coping problems.

So, while we’re supportive of your impulse to take steps to improve your well-being — and there definitely are online sites and apps that you can use to upgrade your health — we want you to be aware that there’s a lot of unscientific, sometimes costly self-help being pushed to consumers. And it’s not always easy to tell the good from the bad.

You want to use programs that are based in well-researched medical facts, can do no harm and actually work. And an important new study has just come out that also can improve your chances of getting scientifically validated self-help programs online and through apps.

In the Journal of Medical Internet Research, a team from the University of Michigan Medical School has put together a list of sites offering disease-management advice that’s backed up by evidence from gold-standard studies. The sites address mental-health issues such as depression and mood management, anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse, insomnia, pain, cardiovascular risks, childhood health issues and how to improve diet and physical activity levels. Their complete list is available for download as a PDF file at: http://bit.ly/2o9DiXb.

As for trying to figure out if a selfhelp site or app you come across is reliable, apply the REST criteria and you can rest assured:

RESEARCH: Ask yourself, is the claim based on high-quality research. If the providers of the app or info don’t cite a published study in a recognized journal to back up their claims, be skeptical.

EXPERT: Is the organization or individual offering the advice a credentialed expert? Self-proclaimed self-helpers often are more interested in their own fame than helping YOU.

SELF-APPLICABLE: Ask yourself, “Is this advice really self-applicable? Does it feel like it’s something that I should listen to?” Pay attention to your instincts.

TRUSTWORTHY: How trustworthy does this advice seem? Are there grandiose claims for too-farreaching effects? Is there a personality touting it who is overhyped? This is your health, remember, not something for entertainment.

If you find a reliable self-help app or website, remember, medical and emotional care is always better with a team approach. So don’t self-diagnose. See your doctor. Find out what your health issues are. Learn about available treatments. Discuss what you can do on your own, using selfhelp apps or websites.