Tweets reveal symptoms of depression

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-02-12 03:00

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Catastrophising, black-and-white thinking, and mindreading are just some of the kinds of “distorted thinking” often linked to depression. US researchers found that people with a self-reported diagnosis of depression expressed higher levels of certain kinds of distorted thinking on Twitter (e.g., “My grades are good but it still feels like I will fail”) compared with a random sample of Tweets. The authors say their results suggest a way to engage and intervene with mental health issues through social media, such as by setting up automated chatbots. However, they urge caution for future applications given data privacy and ethical concerns.

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Journal/
conference: Nature Human Behaviour

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: Indiana University, USA

Funder: L.L.-L. received an honorarium for consulting from Happify, Inc. in September 2020. Happify, Inc. creates behavioural change technologies (for example, apps) for mental health. Happify had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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