Independent Researcher, Washington, DC, United States.
Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Sci Rep. 2022 May 27;12(1):8946. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-12952-5.
The absence of continuous, real-time mental health assessment has made it challenging to quantify the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on population mental health. We examined publicly available, anonymized, aggregated data on weekly trends in Google searches related to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation from 2018 to 2020 in the US. We correlated these trends with (1) emergency department (ED) visits for mental health problems and suicide attempts, and (2) surveys of self-reported symptoms of anxiety, depression, and mental health care use. Search queries related to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation decreased sharply around March 2020, returning to pre-pandemic levels by summer 2020. Searches related to depression were correlated with the proportion of individuals reporting receiving therapy (r = 0.73), taking medication (r = 0.62) and having unmet mental healthcare needs (r = 0.57) on US Census Household Pulse Survey and modestly correlated with rates of ED visits for mental health conditions. Results were similar when considering instead searches for anxiety. Searches for suicidal ideation did not correlate with external variables. These results suggest aggregated data on Internet searches can provide timely and continuous insights into population mental health and complement other existing tools in this domain.
由于缺乏连续的实时心理健康评估，因此难以量化 COVID-19 大流行对人口心理健康的影响。我们在美国研究了从 2018 年到 2020 年期间每周与焦虑、抑郁和自杀意念相关的谷歌搜索中公开提供的匿名聚合数据。我们将这些趋势与以下因素相关联：（1）因心理健康问题和自杀企图而到急诊室就诊的人数；（2）自我报告的焦虑、抑郁和精神卫生保健服务使用症状的调查。与焦虑、抑郁和自杀意念相关的搜索查询在 2020 年 3 月左右急剧下降，到 2020 年夏季恢复到大流行前的水平。与抑郁相关的搜索与报告接受治疗（r = 0.73）、服用药物（r = 0.62）和未满足精神卫生保健需求（r = 0.57）的个体比例相关，与因心理健康问题而到急诊室就诊的比率也有一定的相关性。考虑到焦虑症的搜索情况，结果类似。自杀意念的搜索与外部变量无关。这些结果表明，互联网搜索的聚合数据可以为人口心理健康提供及时和持续的洞察，并补充该领域其他现有工具。
