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.