Internet searchers could give real-time clues to population depression, anxiety burden

Internet searches related to depression or anxiety appear to be correlated with the population-wide burden of these mental health conditions, reports a recent US study.

Researchers used publicly available, aggregated, anonymised trends in weekly Google searches related to depression, anxiety and suicidal ideation, focusing on the time period from 2018 to 2020. They then examined the correlation of these trends with population mental health markers such as emergency department (ED) visits for these conditions, self-reported symptoms, medication use, and suicide attempts.

Internet searches related to anxiety were more common than those for depression; queries for suicidal ideation, in comparison, were rare. There were also notable seasonal trends, with searches tending to dip during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Upticks in suicidal ideation, on the other hand, coincided with the highly publicised suicide deaths of two celebrities.

The pandemic also triggered profound changes in search trends. In March 2020, as compared with the same time the year before, researchers recorded a pronounced decrease in the searches for anxiety (by 3.8 percent), depression (by 16.1 percent), and suicidal ideation (by 8.0 percent).

Search trends were also found to be correlated with population-wide mental health markers, particularly for anxiety. Queries related to anxiety, for instance, correlated with ED visits for suicide attempts and for mental health symptoms, self-reported anxiety, and use of mental health treatment.

Searches for depression, on the other hand, were strongly associated with self-reported therapy, self-reported medication, and self-reported unmet need for mental health interventions. No such effect was documented for queries related to suicidal ideation.