ArticlePloS one2025
Public perception and changing attitudes toward antidepressants over a decade in social media: Lessons learned from online discussion using artificial intelligence.
Article in PloS one, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Perceptions and Attitudes Regarding Postpartum Depression on Reddit: Inductive Content Analysis.Online journal of public health informatics · 2026Article
- Are antidepressants held to a different standard?BJPsych open · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAntidepressants play a crucial role in treating mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety. Understanding of patients' perspective on antidepressants is essential for improving treatment outcomes; however, year-to-year change in the public's perception of antidepressants remains unclear. We aimed to analyze changes in public sentiments and predominant perceptions regarding antidepressants using artificial intelligence pipeline.
methodsThis study analyzed online discussions related to antidepressants on Reddit from January 1, 2009, to December 31, 2022. Antidepressant-associated communities were explored to collect a list of discussions relevant to antidepressant therapy. Discussion topics on antidepressants were identified using BERTopic, and the sentiments were analyzed using a RoBERTa model. Trends were assessed using the Mann-Kendall test to evaluate shifts in sentiments over time.
resultsWe analyzed 429,510 antidepressant-related discourse over 14 years and found a predominance in negative sentiments. Key discussion topics include the benefits and side effects of antidepressants, experiences with drug switching, and specific concerns regarding bupropion therapy. In trend analyses, negative sentiments decreased, while neutral sentiments increased over time. This aligns with a decline in the annual proportion of topics associated with side effects within each cluster.
conclusionsNegative perceptions toward antidepressants are prevalent on social media, mainly focusing on efficacy and side effects. However, a decade-long analysis shows a decline in negative sentiments, with an increase in neutral sentiments with a downturn in yearly proportion of side-effected related topics within each cluster. These trends and information may help improve strategies to address barriers to antidepressant use and adherence.
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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.