Tips on Researching Medical Conditions

Some of my own biggest pet peeves in stories are inaccuracies and false information involving the portrayal of various diseases and other medical conditions. While it may be easy to criticize someone for failing to do their research on a given topic, with so many information outlets available and at often times, conflicting information, it can be a bit overwhelming. In this tutorial, I’ve complied some tips and resources that can make the task of researching for a story a bit less daunting.

Television

While doing a quick search on Google may be tempting, the internet can be an array of conflicting and misleading information. At times, it can also be more difficult to really get a grasp on an illness just skimming an article littered with textbook terminologies and lists of symptoms. I would suggest avoiding the internet when you first begin research and instead, opt for books or television.

Channels like National Geographic, TLC, and Discovery frequently air specials focused on different conditions. National Geographic has a documentary on pregnancy titled In the Womb that could serve as a great launching pad for writing about pregnancy. The show Strange Sex on TLC (which also airs occasionally on the Oprah Winfrey Network) portrays real cases and interviews with people with various sexual conditions. Another television resource on various topics is the MTV documentary series True Life, which has episodes centered around young people with schizophrenia, narcolepsy, body dysmorphic disorder, and pregnancy. Other MTV series such as 16 & Pregnant and Teen Mom can also be helpful in providing a glimpse into childbirth, pregnancy, and parenting. Dr. Phil can also serve as a great starting place for researching mental illness and getting a grasp on how a character with a certain disorder may behave.

Though these shows should, by no means, serve as your only source of information, they can act as a great place to start by portraying real people with the condition you’re interested in and by putting some of the more technical aspects into terms that are easier to understand.

Books

Depending on your budget, books can also work as a great research tool. If you write about mental illnesses often, investing in a used, older edition of an abnormal psychology textbook could be a good idea. That being said, textbooks are rather expensive, so I wouldn’t suggest buying a textbook if you’re only writing a oneshot on a given disorder, but if it is something you’re interested in and write about often, it could be a great tool.

There are many magazines geared towards pregnancy and parenting, and those could be a useful and relatively inexpensive research aid. Though it is probably one of the most hated and stereotyped medical conditions in online fiction, because pregnancy is so common, it can be fairly easy to research. There are countless books geared towards new moms and dads that outline the process and answer commonly asked questions, with the most well known book probably being What to Expect When You’re Expecting.

The World Wide Web

After you’ve gotten a good grasp on the condition you’re researching and how it may affect people, you may then want to move on to the internet to gain more depth or find answers to any unanswered questions that you couldn’t find information on elsewhere. I would warn that it is crucial to use reputable sources while researching online because just about anyone can post something online, regardless of whether they know what they’re talking about or not.

WebMD.com can be a great online resource because it is reliable and typically describes things in layman terms. The National Institute of Health’s website is also a great place to glean simple information like a brief introduction to the illness, symptoms, and common methods of treatment.

Some other tips I would give would be to take advantage of primary sources. If you know someone with the condition you’re researching, it can be helpful to gain information firsthand from someone who has experienced what you’re writing about. Another word of advice I would offer is that, although you should be knowledgeable about the topic you’re writing about, often, the reader does not need to know all of the gritty details. It can be tempting to want to show off your research by including a lot of information in your story, but no reader wants to be bogged down by a massive dump of information. Also, a great general rule of thumb to keep in mind while you’re writing about a medical or mental condition is to always double-check. Even if you think you know something, there’s always the chance that you could be misinformed. I know there are times when I personally have been convinced that I knew something, but a quick search confirmed that I had gotten one condition mixed up with another or something of that nature. It never hurts to make sure that what you’re writing is factual.

In closing, while researching medical conditions may seem overwhelming at first glance, there are simple ways to narrow down the information and slowly build your knowledge on a given subject.