Drugs on the Internet, part II: antidepressant medication web sites.

Antidepressant medications have been the fastest growing category of use of pharmaceutical products over the past decade. Selected Internet web sites providing information on antidepressant medications were identified and assessed using code of conduct criteria for posting health information on the Internet as developed by the Health on the Internet Foundation. Thirteen representative web sites were evaluated. Degree of compliance with each of the eight criterion varied by site, though all 13 sites met the criterion for legality of content and conduct on their web site. WebMD and FamilyDoctor.org met most of the criteria, while pharmaceutical company sites tended to meet the fewest criteria.