Researchers search for new markers of depression online

The type of language used in Facebook posts, how often users bare their soul on Instagram and even the tense used, have all been uncovered as insights into someone’s mental health. Here’s how.

The type of language used on Facebook, how often users bare their soul on Instagram, and even the tense used, have all been uncovered as ­insights into someone’s mental health.

Psychological experts now want to create a clinically ­validated measure of mental wellbeing based on daily social media use.

An Australia-first study is recruiting 1000 adults with the aim of providing real-time alerts on someone’s mental state and to more accurately deduce the prevalence of depression and anxiety.

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Lead researcher Dr Bridianne O’Dea, from the Black Dog Institute at the University of New South Wales, said given that social media was used to share “thoughts, ­feelings and behaviours” — ­elements directly linked to mental health — more evidence was emerging of the ­relationship of this data to psychological wellbeing.

Her preliminary research found that individuals had unique linguistic styles in their social media communication, which changed when their mental health changed.

Other studies have shown that people who are depressed and suicidal are heavier users of the first-person in their written communication.

“We know that the harms of depression and mental health can be reduced with improved detection. But we know that the rates of people seeking help are low, and not everyone is very good at detecting the symptoms in themselves,” Dr O’Dea said. “Social media offers an entirely new predictive tool that can measure actual real-time descent into a depressive state to better inform decisions about mental health care and treatment. It could also be a tool individuals can use to monitor their own mental health recovery and relapse.”

The institute will open recruitment on its website in June for the 60-week study, which is funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Every two weeks, participants will complete questionnaires about their mental health, while their social media use will be monitored and measured to identify “markers” for depression.

“Ten years ago, the big research question was, ‘is social media bad for our mental health?’. We were looking at crude measures of time spent online,” Dr O’Dea said. “But in the last few years, we have found no strong convincing evidence between mental health and how much time you spend on social media.

“Now the science is more sophisticated and we’re looking at more nuanced patterns of use that are directly linked to mental health.”

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