Seasonality Patterns of Internet Searches on Mental Health: Exploratory Infodemiology Study

Abstract

Background The study of seasonal patterns of public interest in psychiatric disorders has important theoretical and practical implications for service planning and delivery. The recent explosion of internet searches suggests that mining search databases yields unique information on public interest in mental health disorders, which is a significantly more affordable approach than population health studies. Objective This study aimed to investigate seasonal patterns of internet mental health queries in Ontario, Canada. Methods Weekly data on health queries in Ontario from Google Trends were downloaded for a 5-year period (2012-2017) for the terms “schizophrenia,” “autism,” “bipolar,” “depression,” “anxiety,” “OCD” (obsessive-compulsive disorder), and “suicide.” Control terms were overall search results for the terms “health” and “how.” Time-series analyses using a continuous wavelet transform were performed to isolate seasonal components in the search volume for each term. Results All mental health queries showed significant seasonal patterns with peak periodicity occurring over the winter months and troughs occurring during summer, except for “suicide.” The comparison term “health” also exhibited seasonal periodicity, while the term “how” did not, indicating that general information seeking may not follow a seasonal trend in the way that mental health information seeking does. Conclusions Seasonal patterns of internet search volume in a wide range of mental health terms were observed, with the exception of “suicide.” Our study demonstrates that monitoring internet search trends is an affordable, instantaneous, and naturalistic method to sample public interest in large populations and inform health policy planners.

Flattening the Mental Health Curve: COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders Are Associated With Alterations in Mental Health Search Behavior in the United States

“…We used the following search terms to examine common mental health symptoms: "anxiety," "depression," "OCD" (obsessive-compulsive disorder), "hopeless," "angry," "afraid," "apathy," "worthless," "worried," "restless," "irritable," "tense," "scattered," "tired," "avoiding," "procrastinate," "insomnia," "suicidal," and "suicide." These mental health terms were validated by prior research on mental health using Google Trends [20]. We also adapted other terms that measure Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition affective disorder symptoms based on prior research assessing rapid affective symptom changes, including single-items to assess anxiety (both in terms of subjective thoughts, including fear, tense, and restless, as well as avoidance behaviors, including avoiding and procrastination), negative thoughts (hopeless, worried), irritability (anger, irritable), fatigue (tired), anhedonia (apathy), diminished ability to think or concentrate (scattered), disturbed sleep (insomnia), and suicidal ideation (suicidal, suicide) [21,22].…”

Flattening the Mental Health Curve: COVID-19 Stay-at-Home Orders are Associated with Alterations in Mental Health Search Behavior in the United States

“…These mental health terms were validated by prior research on mental health using Google Trends. 20 We also adapted other terms that measure DSM-5 affective disorder symptoms based on prior research assessing rapid affective symptom changes, including single-items to assess anxiety (both in terms of subjective thoughts, including fear, tense, and restless; as well as avoidance behaviors, including avoiding and procrastination), negative thoughts (hopeless, worried), irritability (anger, irritable), fatigue (tired), anhedonia (apathy), diminished ability to think or concentrate (scattered), disturbed sleep (insomnia), and suicidal ideation (suicidal, suicide). 21,22 Physical Health Terms Unrelated to Known COVID-19 Symptoms.…”

What Motivates Internet Users to Search for Asperger Syndrome and Autism on Google?

“…The internet helps to shape perceptions—positive or negative—about the ASD and Asperger syndrome labels [ 8 , 9 ]. It is increasingly common for people (especially those with limited resources) to make use of different websites to search for and satisfy their queries on any subject [ 10 ]. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google have become absolute spreaders of information about the autism and Asperger’s diagnoses [ 11 , 12 , 13 ].…”