{"id":65,"date":"2007-12-06T17:04:29","date_gmt":"2007-12-06T22:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/72.9.147.40\/archives\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html"},"modified":"2007-12-06T17:04:29","modified_gmt":"2007-12-06T22:04:29","slug":"should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html","title":{"rendered":"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Wow is all I can say. When I came across <a href=\"http:\/\/metatalk.metafilter.com\/15401\/AskMe-screws-the-pooch\">this discussion on MetaTalk<\/a>, the discussion site for an old community blogging site called MetaFilter, I was taken aback.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nThe discussion is about how &#8220;wrong&#8221; the people who responded to a request for opinions and advice about a mental health issue were. The post was written by a physician, naturally, who suggested there should be greater caution in people offering their opinions (and even diagnoses) on medical or mental health issues where they don&#8217;t have a full and complete history.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nNow, of course, on the face of it, this makes common sense. Nobody, not even doctors, like to go around offering their opinions about things on the basis of little information. But sometimes that&#8217;s all we have to go on, and people just want some ideas.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nI don&#8217;t honestly think that at the end of 2007, anybody goes on to any &#8220;Ask&#8221; or Q&#038;A site asking about a professional concern (whether it be medical, mental health, legal, plumbing, electrical, relationships, career, etc.) and not know that a lot of the responses they will receive will be non-professional and &#8220;from my own personal experience.&#8221; That&#8217;s one of the joys of Web 2.0 &#8212; everyone can be and often is an expert.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSome communities, like Yahoo Answers, have built-in tools to help readers rate answers they feel best capture a legitimate and useful answer to the question posed. It is these kinds of tools, and not disclaimers or efforts to clamp down on answering mental health or medical advice questions, that are the future. Because people will always ask such questions, it&#8217;s just a question of where they do it and whether such an environment can provide tools or options to make it a good, safe environment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wow is all I can say. When I came across this discussion on MetaTalk, the discussion site for an old community blogging site called MetaFilter, I was taken aback. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[8261],"class_list":["post-65","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pts-as-teachers"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online? - SPM Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online? - SPM Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Wow is all I can say. When I came across this discussion on MetaTalk, the discussion site for an old community blogging site called MetaFilter, I was taken aback. The [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SPM Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/participatorymedicine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-12-06T22:04:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@s4pm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@s4pm\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7896887b602778a749ad9ae19f166ec9\"},\"headline\":\"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online?\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-06T22:04:29+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html\"},\"wordCount\":306,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Patients as Teachers\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html\",\"name\":\"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online? - SPM Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-12-06T22:04:29+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/2007\\\/12\\\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/\",\"name\":\"SPM Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Society for Participatory Medicine\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/spm-logo-13.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/3\\\/2017\\\/06\\\/spm-logo-13.png\",\"width\":971,\"height\":269,\"caption\":\"Society for Participatory Medicine\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/participatorymedicine\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/s4pm\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7896887b602778a749ad9ae19f166ec9\",\"name\":\"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/97da4123737d8e8c1c04682908d5487f61275fd52d1ee3afcef5a563ba1d21d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g74b9ce4cbedb0534b91fd67894d84c23\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/97da4123737d8e8c1c04682908d5487f61275fd52d1ee3afcef5a563ba1d21d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/97da4123737d8e8c1c04682908d5487f61275fd52d1ee3afcef5a563ba1d21d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.\"},\"description\":\"John M. Grohol, Psy.D. is one of the pioneers in online mental health and support groups, getting his start on the Internet in 1992 with depression support groups and advocacy efforts. He is a writer, researcher, and the publisher &amp; founder of the Internet's leading mental health and psychology network, Psych Central, a founding corporate member of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of Computers in Human Behavior and does e-health consulting in his spare time. Dr. Grohol is a founding member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine, and is also a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/psychcentral.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/participatorymedicine.org\\\/epatients\\\/author\\\/john-grohol\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online? - SPM Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online? - SPM Blog","og_description":"Wow is all I can say. When I came across this discussion on MetaTalk, the discussion site for an old community blogging site called MetaFilter, I was taken aback. The [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html","og_site_name":"SPM Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/participatorymedicine","article_published_time":"2007-12-06T22:04:29+00:00","author":"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@s4pm","twitter_site":"@s4pm","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html"},"author":{"name":"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.","@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#\/schema\/person\/7896887b602778a749ad9ae19f166ec9"},"headline":"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online?","datePublished":"2007-12-06T22:04:29+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html"},"wordCount":306,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Patients as Teachers"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html","url":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html","name":"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online? - SPM Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-12-06T22:04:29+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/2007\/12\/should-ordinary-people-give-medical-advice-online.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Should Ordinary People Give Medical Advice Online?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#website","url":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/","name":"SPM Blog","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#organization","name":"Society for Participatory Medicine","url":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/06\/spm-logo-13.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/06\/spm-logo-13.png","width":971,"height":269,"caption":"Society for Participatory Medicine"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/participatorymedicine","https:\/\/x.com\/s4pm"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/#\/schema\/person\/7896887b602778a749ad9ae19f166ec9","name":"John M. Grohol, Psy.D.","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/97da4123737d8e8c1c04682908d5487f61275fd52d1ee3afcef5a563ba1d21d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g74b9ce4cbedb0534b91fd67894d84c23","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/97da4123737d8e8c1c04682908d5487f61275fd52d1ee3afcef5a563ba1d21d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/97da4123737d8e8c1c04682908d5487f61275fd52d1ee3afcef5a563ba1d21d4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"John M. Grohol, Psy.D."},"description":"John M. Grohol, Psy.D. is one of the pioneers in online mental health and support groups, getting his start on the Internet in 1992 with depression support groups and advocacy efforts. He is a writer, researcher, and the publisher &amp; founder of the Internet's leading mental health and psychology network, Psych Central, a founding corporate member of the Society for Participatory Medicine. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of Computers in Human Behavior and does e-health consulting in his spare time. Dr. Grohol is a founding member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine, and is also a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists.","sameAs":["http:\/\/psychcentral.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/author\/john-grohol"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8S1TQ-13","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/participatorymedicine.org\/epatients\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=65"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}