Mapping and optimization of online depression forums

The research project "Mapping and optimization of online depression forums" was implemented at Eötvös Loránd University. 

Identification of a Social Problem

Alongside the expansion of the information society, in recent years, the E-health sector has emerged as a new area of innovation and research. Within this field, E-mental health is a particularly dynamically developing area that examines the possibilities of mental disorder prevention and support for clinical therapies (such as information exchange and online communities) from the perspective of technological tools in the information society. Not only in general terms of e-health/mental health, but also in modern psychiatry, one of the fastest-growing areas is computational linguistics, which can predict the presence of current or emerging mental disorders (especially psychotic conditions and depression) through the automated analysis of linguistic corpora.

Research findings

On the one hand, the description of the impact of COVID and, on the other hand, the examination of the socialization effects of forums. Their results are summarized in two research reports:

• Németh, R. - Sik, D. - Zaboretzky, B. - Katona, E. (2022) Depression in times of a pandemic – the impact of COVID on the lay discourses of e-mental health communities (manuscript)
• Sik, D. - Rakovics, M. - Jakab, B. - Németh, R. (2022) Negotiating depressed self-identities in the online sphere – on the latent socialization functions of e-mental health communities (manuscript)

Description of the method

The study formulates useful recommendations ("good practices") that can be utilized in online depression forums, potentially laying the foundation for developments that optimize the functioning of the forums. The analyses describe ideal-typical socialization paths for COVID-related depressive discourses, including conformist, biomedical, and psychological understandings. COVID primarily thematized in terms of biologization, meaning that it was connected to depression not through its social consequences but as a complication of the disease. Topic groups that appeared in depression forums before and after COVID were compared (topic model). Furthermore, the socialization effects taking place at different levels of depression interpretation (biologization vs. psychologization) were identified. The interpretative phase of the socialization and pre-post COVID comparative research has been completed, and an English-language professional recommendation for e-mental health forums has been prepared.

Contact

Domonkos Sik (Eötvös Loránd University, Faculty of Social Sciences)
E-mail