CLICK PSYCHOLOGY: ON-LINE DIAGNOSIS LETS YOU DIAL A DISORDER.

Alberta Report, April, 2001 by McGOVERN, CELESTE

Depression is now the second-leading reason Canadians visit their doctors. (High blood pressure is number one.)

According to a recent study of drug prescriptions, the number of people going to their MD for depression has jumped 36% in the past five years; prescriptions for antidepressants such as Prozac and Zoloft rose 63% in the same time period.

One explanation could be the enormous popularity of do-it-yourself psychiatry. Type "depression, anxiety disorder" or "obsessive compulsive disorder" into any on-line search engine and hundreds of Web addresses materialize. More than 100 addresses pop up under "seasonal affective disorder" alone, offering self-diagnostic quizzes, support groups, kits, books, artificial sun lamps and, of course, discussion of...