VIDEO: Social media ‘a blessing and a curse’ for people with alopecia areata

Editor’s note: This is a previously posted video, and the below is an automatically generated transcript to be used for informational purposes. Please notify editor@healio.com if there are concerns regarding accuracy of the transcription.

Social media can be a blessing and a curse. While social media can sometimes lead to certain negative impact on patients who are dealing with this condition, it does also provide an outlet, a voice and can help them get support from people who have similar issues. Also, because social media can bring about information from certain patients who might notice changes in their disease, not written in a textbook in a classic fashion, that can help other people connect to it, learn about certain associated conditions with alopecia areata, can lead to faster referrals. So for example, if somebody has no idea of how to go about this and what is going on with them and another person over on social media can connect with them and guide them that, "Hey, you know this is something that is a condition that has treatments available and you should go see such and such provider in dermatology", et cetera, can be very helpful for their mental health and the disease control, so networking also comes very easily with social media.