Researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have used machine learning techniques to analyse the text of hundreds of thousands of Reddit posts.
The researchers have revealed several key impacts on mental health, including an overall increase in anxiety and in thoughts about suicide.
“When Covid hit, we were all curious whether it was affecting certain communities more than others. Reddit gives us the opportunity to look at all these subreddits that are specialised support groups. It’s a really unique opportunity to see how these different communities were affected differently as the wave was happening, in real-time.”
The researchers analysed posts from 15 subreddit groups devoted to a variety of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. They also included a handful of groups devoted to topics not specifically related to mental health, such as personal finance, fitness, and parenting.
Using natural language processing algorithms, the researchers measured the frequency of words associated with topics such as anxiety, death, isolation, and substance abuse, and grouped posts together based on similarities in the language used.
The researchers said this type of analysis could help mental health care providers identify segments of the population that are most vulnerable to declines in mental health caused by not only the Covid-19 pandemic but other mental health stressors.
