Risque et utilité du Web en santé mentale chez l’adolescent, évolutions et perspectives

Abstract: The children and particularly the adolescents are acknowledged as major customers and early adopters of the Internet that has become their major source of information about a wide range of topics. The Web offers a convenient and anonymous route to information, services, and products that formerly required contact with healthcare providers. But the Internet could be dangerous with the antihealth sites like prosuicide or proanorexia that developed and maintained by people with these disorders. This paper is a review of the recent literature on the risks and the advantages that can result in the use of the Internet in mental health. The Web use facilitates obesity, sleep disorder and academic failure. It could decrease quality of life. The Internet addiction has become an important issue of mental health for college students. Furthermore, the Internet contains an extraordinary amount of information on the recreational use of psychoactive substances. The impact of the online pornography is too less estimated. A lot of sites make the apology of the suicidal acts or the anorexia nervosa. Far thinking to demonize this technical tool of communication, we detail the growing interest of the Web when it''s used as medical database or as therapeutic tool. The Internet is a major source of information for the general public in the field of health and particularly in the field of mental health. The quality and provenance of information and services like e-therapy offered to users through this medium are a source of concern to the healthcare community. Finally, the Internet is a technical progress involving new subjects and even new methods of research like the web-based survey or the googling studies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]