Social Media, Big Data, and Public Health Informatics: Ruminating Behavior of Depression Revealed through Twitter

Undiagnosed and untreated depressive disorders have become a serious public health issue and it is prevalent among people of all ages, gender and race. Social media sites, such as Twitter, have become a major venue for people to express/disclose their thoughts and feelings. The tweets from these micro-blogging sites could be used to screen for and potentially detect depression. To date, studies in this area have focused on developing and validating the terms and vocabulary used by users with depression, or evaluating tweets related to depression by using terms that are synonymous with depression. This approach has not produced reliable findings. In this study, we depart from this approach and instead, base our analysis on research on depressive disorders, which indicates the critical significance of repetitive thoughts and ruminating behavior of people with depression. The current study and findings hold important implications for research on depression, social media, and public health informatics.