Decreasing public interest in social psychiatry: An infodemiological study of worldwide Google search volumes from 2004 to 2021

Abstract

Background: While mental disorder is an ‘intrinsically social phenomenon’, social psychiatry has been reportedly declining. Addressing public interests in social psychiatry was among the suggestions to address this decline. In recent years, public interest in social psychiatry can be explored using Google Trends, an increasingly important infodemiological tool. Objective: This study determined changes in global online public interest in social psychiatry from January 2004 to December 2021 using Google search volumes. Methods: Search query using this keyword, ‘Social Psychiatry (Topic)’, was made using the Explore feature of Google Trends. The Region and Time Filters were set to ‘Worldwide’ and January 2004 to December 2021, respectively. Afterward, the search volumes, country ranking, queries, and topics returned by the Google Trends system was described and compared. Results: There was a generally decreasing trend in search volumes for social psychiatry where it decreased almost 10 times between 2004 and 2021. Only 11 countries were listed in Google Trends’ ranking with the top countries including Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. Search-related topics and queries were about social psychiatry related concepts, related academic discipline, human resources, social interventions, and education activities Conclusions: The findings suggest that there is a decreasing public interest in social psychiatry. To improve this, social psychiatry can address public expectation through improving its connection with allied social sciences, increasing its educational activities, and expanding its social intervention services.

Google Trends for health research: Its advantages, application, methodological considerations, and limitations in psychiatric and mental health infodemiology

“…Likewise, it provides rising related queries and topics, which are the terms and topics with the most significant search volume growth in the requested time and location (Mavragani and Ochoa, 2019 ; Google, n.d. ). These queries and topics have been analyzed to understand other health concerns related to a particular keyword (Moalong et al, 2021 ; Alibudbud, 2022a ; Alibudbud and Cleofas, 2022 ; Roberto et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Likewise, it has been utilized in psychiatric and mental health research by using search volumes worldwide and among and between countries (Monzani et al, 2021 ; Silverio-Murillo et al, 2021 ; Sycińska-Dziarnowska et al, 2021 ; Alibudbud, 2022b ; Alibudbud and Cleofas, 2022 ; de la Rosa et al, 2022 ; Lekkas et al, 2022 ; Wang et al, 2022 ). It has also been used to analyze specific psychiatric disciplines, such as social psychiatry (Alibudbud, 2022a ). It has been correlated with survey and surveillance datasets to predict, nowcast, and forecast particular psychiatric symptoms, such as loneliness and self-harm, with varying degrees of correlation (Mavragani and Ochoa, 2019 ; Knipe et al, 2021 ).…”

“…First , Google Trends only reflects the interests and behaviors of people with internet access and those who use the Google search engine (Moalong et al, 2021 ; Alibudbud, 2022a ). Hence, it may not reflect the interests and behaviors of areas with limited internet connection and low Google market share.…”

Cervical cancer, the human papillomavirus vaccine, and cervical screenings from 2004—2021: a Google Trends analysis in Japan

“…While this study explored the public search interest regarding cervical cancer in Japan, several limitations should be considered. First, the ndings only re ect interests from people who utilize Google search and have access to internet information, which may not fully re ect the general population's interests [40,41].…”

Comment: Social Psychiatry: Is it going out of fashion?

“…In this context, Dr. Alibudbud’s paper ‘Decreasing public interest in social psychiatry: An infodemiological study of worldwide Google search volumes from 2004 to 2021’ (Alibudbud, 2022) in this issue. It has prompted some important considerations – is social psychiatry still relevant in today’s age?…”