Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health: Real-time surveillance using Google Trends

Psychol Trauma. 2020 Sep;12(6):567-568. doi: 10.1037/tra0000872. Epub 2020 Aug 13.

Abstract

In the wake of COVID-19, the capacity to track emerging trends in mental health symptoms and needs will guide public health responses at multiple ecological levels. Using Google Trends to track population-level mental health-related Google searches in the United States, this investigation identified pandemic-associated spikes in searches related to anxiety symptoms and remote treatments for anxiety, such as deep breathing and body scan meditation. As other discernable population-level changes in mental health have yet to emerge, continued surveillance is warranted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Betacoronavirus*
  • COVID-19
  • Coronavirus Infections / psychology*
  • Humans
  • Internet*
  • Mental Disorders / epidemiology*
  • Mental Disorders / psychology*
  • Pandemics
  • Pneumonia, Viral / psychology*
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • United States / epidemiology