scholarly journals Monitoring Online Discussions About Suicide Among Twitter Users With Schizophrenia: Exploratory Study (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulin Hswen ◽  
John A Naslund ◽  
John S Brownstein ◽  
Jared B Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Elevated Risk ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Twitter Users

BACKGROUND People with schizophrenia experience elevated risk of suicide. Mental health symptoms, including depression and anxiety, contribute to increased risk of suicide. Digital technology could support efforts to detect suicide risk and inform suicide prevention efforts. OBJECTIVE This exploratory study examined the feasibility of monitoring online discussions about suicide among Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia. METHODS Posts containing the terms suicide or suicidal were collected from a sample of Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia (N=203) and a random sample of control users (N=173) over a 200-day period. Frequency and timing of posts about suicide were compared between groups. The associations between posting about suicide and common mental health symptoms were examined. RESULTS Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia posted more tweets about suicide (mean 7.10, SD 15.98) compared to control users (mean 1.89, SD 4.79; t374=-4.13, P<.001). Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia showed greater odds of tweeting about suicide compared to control users (odds ratio 2.15, 95% CI 1.42-3.28). Among all users, tweets about suicide were associated with tweets about depression (r=0.62, P<.001) and anxiety (r=0.45, P<.001). CONCLUSIONS Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia appear to commonly discuss suicide on social media, which is associated with greater discussion about other mental health symptoms. These findings should be interpreted cautiously, as it is not possible to determine whether online discussions about suicide correlate with suicide risk. However, these patterns of online discussion may be indicative of elevated risk of suicide observed in this patient group. There may be opportunities to leverage social media for supporting suicide prevention among individuals with schizophrenia.

scholarly journals Monitoring Online Discussions About Suicide Among Twitter Users With Schizophrenia: Exploratory Study

10.2196/11483 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. e11483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yulin Hswen ◽  
John A Naslund ◽  
John S Brownstein ◽  
Jared B Hawkins
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Suicide Risk ◽  
Elevated Risk ◽  
Online Discussions ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Twitter Users

Background People with schizophrenia experience elevated risk of suicide. Mental health symptoms, including depression and anxiety, contribute to increased risk of suicide. Digital technology could support efforts to detect suicide risk and inform suicide prevention efforts. Objective This exploratory study examined the feasibility of monitoring online discussions about suicide among Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia. Methods Posts containing the terms suicide or suicidal were collected from a sample of Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia (N=203) and a random sample of control users (N=173) over a 200-day period. Frequency and timing of posts about suicide were compared between groups. The associations between posting about suicide and common mental health symptoms were examined. Results Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia posted more tweets about suicide (mean 7.10, SD 15.98) compared to control users (mean 1.89, SD 4.79; t374=-4.13, P<.001). Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia showed greater odds of tweeting about suicide compared to control users (odds ratio 2.15, 95% CI 1.42-3.28). Among all users, tweets about suicide were associated with tweets about depression (r=0.62, P<.001) and anxiety (r=0.45, P<.001). Conclusions Twitter users who self-identify as having schizophrenia appear to commonly discuss suicide on social media, which is associated with greater discussion about other mental health symptoms. These findings should be interpreted cautiously, as it is not possible to determine whether online discussions about suicide correlate with suicide risk. However, these patterns of online discussion may be indicative of elevated risk of suicide observed in this patient group. There may be opportunities to leverage social media for supporting suicide prevention among individuals with schizophrenia.

scholarly journals Representation of #CAMHS on social media platform TikTok

BJPsych Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (S1) ◽  
pp. S241-S242
Author(s):  
Preetisha Chadee ◽  
Sacha Evans
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Service Users ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Negative Perception ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Raising Awareness ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Self Harm ◽  
Insight Into

AimsThe video-based free social media app, TikTok, has grown in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, with half of British children using Tik Tok regularly. With more than 2 billion downloads, it was the most downloaded app of 2020. Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) is currently found on TikTok via the hashtag #CAMHS. The aim of this study was to explore how CAMHS is represented on TikTok through reviewing the hashtags associated with CAMHS and exploring the themes of videos with the #CAMHS hashtag.MethodThe Tik Tok app was downloaded and a search for the hashtags which featured the word #CAMHS was undertaken. A thematic analysis of the top 100 most popular uploaded videos featuring the #CAMHS was conducted. The number of likes, views and shares of the videos featuring each theme was recorded.ResultVideos with the hashtag #CAMHS had 203.9 million views, followed by: #camhsmeme(s) totalling 43.1 million views, #camhsjokes with 21.4 million views and #camhskids, 12.5 million views. The top 100 most popular videos represented 24% of total viewed videos with the hashtag #CAMHS.The most popular recurrent themes associated with the hashtag #CAMHS in our sample were: raising awareness of mental health symptoms and management (40% of videos), reference to self-harm (27% of videos) and negative perception of CAMHS (27% of videos).Raising awareness of mental health symptoms and management had the most likes (3,694,700) and views (17,435,900). This was followed by videos with themes of reference to self-harm (3,006,300 likes and 14,382,700 views). The most shared themes were: reference to suicide (shared 56,763 times) and videos which portrayed a theme of negative perception of CAMHS (40,628 shares). Videos with themes of a negative perception of CAMHS also garnered 1,762,500 likes and 8,666,900 views.ConclusionCAMHS is actively represented on TikTok through freely accessible unregulated videos. Videos with themes of raising awareness of mental health symptoms and management can potentially allow young people to share their experiences. Nonetheless, popular hashtags such as #CAMHSmemes and #CAMHSjokes, as well as videos featuring themes of negative perception of CAMHS, could potentially undermine the reputation of CAMHS to existing and future service users. The content of these videos should be taken seriously by CAMHS clinicians as it can potentially provide an insight into service users’ experiences of CAMHS on a scale that has not been observed before. Presently these videos are not screened or modulated by the NHS CAMHS service.

scholarly journals Social Media and Mental Health in Youth During COVID-19: A Narrative Review

2021 ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Sedentary Behavior ◽  
Media Effects ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Social Media Use ◽  
Health Symptoms

Social media effects on youth during COVID-19 have been studied in the context of excessive use and mental health. Although some positive effects have been reported including connecting and social support, the COVID-19 research has typically noted negative effects including sedentary behavior, limited social interaction, depression and anxiety. This narrative review of eighteen COVID-19 publications on social media effects on youth includes sections on prevalence, on effects and on mediators/moderators of those effects. The prevalence of social media use by youth during COVID-19 has varied between 5% and 97% across 22 countries as a function of location, quarantine/lockdown, and type of social media, although the overall prevalence has significantly increased by 27% during the pandemic and has averaged 38% across studies. The most popular social media have been Facebook, What’s App, Instagram and Twitter. The prevalence of mental health symptoms has also varied across countries but has averaged 27% for anxiety, 34% for depression and 35% for stress. Mediators for the relationships between excessive social media and mental health symptoms have included rumination, psychological capital, sense of control and active use and moderators have included mindfulness, academic burnout and “flow”. Limitations of this literature are its sampling of self-reports from university students via cross-sectional surveys and confounding variables including pre-existing psychopathology, lockdown conditions, and sedentary behavior. Research is needed on the specific reasons for excessive social media use (e. g. information seeking, social interaction and escape from negative feelings including loneliness and touch deprivation) to inform intervention protocols for reducing this addictive behavior and its negative consequences on mental health symptoms in youth.

scholarly journals #UsapTayo: Utilizing Tweetchat for Mental Health Advocacy in the Philippines

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Y Zuniga ◽  
R Dahildahil ◽  
J Mina ◽  
A Libanan ◽  
R Mojica ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Penetration Rate ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Health Advocacy ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Mental Health Advocacy

Abstract Mental health remains a public health concern across countries. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. In the Philippines, about 3 million Filipinos live with depression. Mortality rate for suicide is 3.2 per 100,000 population. Meanwhile, social media use remains high in the country with 76 million users in 2019. It is thus important to explore potential ways in maximizing social media for mental health advocacy. From January 1 to December 31, 2019, a mental health tweetchat “#UsapTayo” (direct Filipino translation of WHO's #LetsTalk) was observed every 10th, 20th, 30th of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 PM. #UsapTayo aimed to answer how effective social media platforms like Twitter in promoting mental health awareness and education among Filipino Twitter users. Engagements and impressions from users were measured using Symplur, a healthcare hashtag analytics platform. From January to December 2019, a total of 4,626 users participated in the tweetchat. Impressions for the year reached 52 million with an average of 4.75 million impressions per month. Engagements and impressions were recorded highest in the month of September with 1,169 users and 8.74 million, respectively. Overall, the tweetchat #UsapTayo was able to generate 14,385 tweets for the complete calendar year with suicide prevention identified as the most discussed topic among Filipino Twitter users. Given the country's high social media penetration rate at 71% with Twitter ranking as the second most frequently used social media, leveraging this platform improves access to information and helps in normalizing conversations on mental health. #UsapTayo then partnered with #ThereIsHelp, a project initiated by Twitter to create safer spaces online through integration of suicide prevention measures. It was also recommended convening a multistakeholder consultation to develop a national mental health promotion and communication plan. Key messages Innovative platforms in social media like tweetchat can be leveraged to promote safer digital space for mental health and to strengthen online effort for suicide prevention especially among youth. It is important to maximize the use of social media platforms for mental health advocacy particularly suicide prevention given the Philippines’ high penetration rate and access to social media.

Length of Deployments As a Predictor of Mental Health Symptoms in Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryann Debeer ◽  
Sandra B. Morissette ◽  
Nathan A. Kimbrel ◽  
Eric C. Meyer ◽  
Suzy B. Gulliver
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Operation Iraqi Freedom ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
Iraqi Freedom
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