People With Depression Show Hints Of Distorted Thinking In The Language They Use On Social Media

By Emily Reynolds A key facet of cognitive behavioural therapy is challenging “cognitive distortions”, inaccurate thought patterns that often affect those with depression. Such distortions could include jumping to conclusions, catastrophising, black and white thinking, or self-blame — and can cause sincere distress to those experiencing them. But how do we track cognitive distortion in those with depression outside of self-reporting? A new study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, explores cognitive distortions online, finding that those with depression have higher levels of distortion in the language they use on social media. Krishna Bathina from Indiana University Bloomington and colleagues looked at the language of over 6 million tweets from 7,349 Twitter accounts, some who had previously tweeted that they had a diagnosis of depression and some who were randomly selected. The researchers were specifically interested in how often these tweets contained 241 phrases which they considered to be the “building blocks” of various cognitive distortions associated with depression. For instance, the phrase “everyone believes” was taken to be part of the “mindreading” distortion, in which people think that they know what others are thinking. Other cognitive distortions include catastrophising, overgeneralisation, and discounting positive experiences. Results showed that those who had tweeted about a diagnosis of depression used...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Cognition Mental health Twitter Source Type: blogs