How Support Groups Help The Arthritis Sufferer

It's 3 a.m. and you're having chills and waves of nausea. Is it a side effect of the new drug you were recently prescribed or the effect of the iffy Chinese food you had this afternoon? Where do you go for advice, comfort, and information at that hour? Enter Online Support Groups.

A survey in March 1998 by Tom Ferguson M.D. at Boston's Center for Clinical Computing and William Kelly at the Sapient Health Network showed that online health communities are significantly more helpful than even specialists in 9 of 12 healthcare aspects. The nine areas that were found to be superior were the convenience, cost effectiveness, emotional support, compassion, source of medical references, source of information, source of coping tips, death issues, and most likely to be there for the long haul. They also rated a bit higher in the area of technical medical information. Online health communities therefore seem to be a very good bet for anyone with a chronic illness. It is also a means of finding a place to go where you are both understood and appreciated. Many find that it gives them a new purpose in life; a sense of accomplishment when they help comfort someone new to their illness. But how does one pick the support group that is right for him or her?