ArticleJournal of psychiatric research2022
Impact of online mental health screening tools on help-seeking, care receipt, and suicidal ideation and suicidal intent: Evidence from internet search behavior in a large U.S. cohort.
Article in Journal of psychiatric research, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Artificial intelligence in mental health care: a systematic review of diagnosis, monitoring, and intervention applications.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Machine learning and the prediction of suicide in psychiatric populations: a systematic review.Translational psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Potential Harms of Feedback After Web-Based Depression Screening: Secondary Analysis of Negative Effects in the Randomized Controlled DISCOVER Trial.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Trial
- Smart screening is associated with timely access to mental health care for high-risk patients: a multicenter cohort study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Developing Digital Mental Health Tools With Culturally Diverse Parents and Young People: Qualitative User-Centered Design Study.JMIR pediatrics and parenting · 2025Article
- IRT analysis of the BDI-II for early online depression detection: validation in a Mexican population.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Crowdsourcing integrated into a digital mental health platform for anxiety and depression: A pilot randomized controlled trial.Internet interventions · 2024Article
- A large-scale observational comparison of antidepressants and their effects.Journal of psychiatric research · 2024Observational
- The Trajectories of Online Mental Health Information Seeking: Modeling Search Behavior Before and After Completion of Self-report Screens.Computers in human behavior · 2024Article
- How adults with suspected depressive disorder experience online depression screening: A qualitative interview study.Internet interventions · 2023Article
- Telepsychiatry in an Era of Digital Mental Health Startups.Current psychiatry reports · 2023Review
- Evaluating the Impact of Mask Mandates and Political Party Affiliation on Mental Health Internet Search Behavior in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Generalized Additive Mixed Model Framework.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- "I Wanted to See How Bad it Was": Online Self-screening as a Critical Transition Point Among Young Adults with Common Mental Health Conditions.Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. CHI Conference · 2022Article
- A Machine-Learning-Based Risk-Prediction Tool for HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections Acquisition over the Next 12 Months.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Using Smartphone App Use and Lagged-Ensemble Machine Learning for the Prediction of Work Fatigue and Boredom.Computers in human behavior · 2022Article
- Group-tailored feedback on online mental health screening for university students: using cluster analysis.BMC primary care · 2022Observational
- Article
- Reddit Users' Experiences of Suicidal Thoughts During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Analysis of r/Covid19_support Posts.Frontiers in public healthArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
introductionMost people with psychiatric illnesses do not receive treatment for almost a decade after disorder onset. Online mental health screens reflect one mechanism designed to shorten this lag in help-seeking, yet there has been limited research on the effectiveness of screening tools in naturalistic settings. MATERIAL AND
methodsWe examined a cohort of persons directed to a mental health screening tool via the Bing search engine (n = 126,060). We evaluated the impact of tool content on later searches for mental health self-references, self-diagnosis, care seeking, psychoactive medications, suicidal ideation, and suicidal intent. Website characteristics were evaluated by pairs of independent raters to ascertain screen type and content. These included the presence/absence of a suggestive diagnosis, a message on interpretability, as well as referrals to digital treatments, in-person treatments, and crisis services.
resultsUsing machine learning models, the results suggested that screen content predicted later searches with mental health self-references (AUC = 0·73), mental health self-diagnosis (AUC = 0·69), mental health care seeking (AUC = 0·61), psychoactive medications (AUC = 0·55), suicidal ideation (AUC = 0·58), and suicidal intent (AUC = 0·60). Cox-proportional hazards models suggested individuals utilizing tools with in-person care referral were significantly more likely to subsequently search for methods to actively end their life (HR = 1·727, p = 0·007). DISCUSSION: Online screens may influence help-seeking behavior, suicidal ideation, and suicidal intent. Websites with referrals to in-person treatments could put persons at greater risk of active suicidal intent. Further evaluation using large-scale randomized controlled trials is needed.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.