Research to Clinical Practice—Youth seeking mental health information online and its impact on the first steps in the patient journey

Background Online searches about anxiety and depression are recorded every 3–5 s. As such, information and communication technologies (ICT) have enormous potential to enable or impair help‐seeking and patient‐professional interactions. Youth studies indicate that ICT searches are undertaken before i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica 2022-03, Vol.145 (3), p.301-314
Main Authors: Scott, Jan, Hockey, Samuel, Ospina‐Pinillos, Laura, Doraiswamy, P. Murali, Alvarez‐Jimenez, Mario, Hickie, Ian
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
adolescents
Anxiety Disorders
Health Personnel
help‐seeking behaviour
Humans
Internet
Medical personnel
Mental Health
online
Patients
Social Media
Social networks
Young Adult
Young adults
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Summary:Background Online searches about anxiety and depression are recorded every 3–5 s. As such, information and communication technologies (ICT) have enormous potential to enable or impair help‐seeking and patient‐professional interactions. Youth studies indicate that ICT searches are undertaken before initial mental health consultations, but no publications have considered how this online activity affects the first steps of the patient journey in youth mental health settings. Methods State‐of‐the‐art review using an iterative, evidence mapping approach to identify key literature and expert consensus to synthesize and prioritise clinical and research issues. Results Adolescents and young adults are more likely to seek health advice via online search engines or social media platforms than from a health professional. Young people not only search user‐generated content and social media to obtain advice and support from online communities but increasingly contribute personal information online. Conclusions A major clinical challenge is to raise professional awareness of the likely impact of this activity on mental health consultations. Potential strategies range from modifying the structure of clinical consultations to ensure young people are able to disclose ICT activities related to mental health, through to the development and implementation of ‘internet prescriptions’ and a youth‐focused ‘toolkit’.
ISSN:0001-690X
1600-0447
DOI:10.1111/acps.13390