Psychiatry and the WWW: some implications

This paper highlights the role that the World Wide Web (WWW) has to play as an aid to psychiatry. A basic history of the WWW is provided as is an introduction to some search techniques involved with the WWW. The literature on applications potentially relevant to psychiatry is reviewed using computer search facilities (BIDS, PsychLit and Medline). The WWW is one of the aspects of the internet that possesses a huge potential for exploitation, both the clinical and research psychiatrist are able to benefit from its use.