JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Symptoms of depression are frequent in youth and may develop into more severe mood disorders, suggesting interventions should take place during adolescence. However, young people tend not to address their mental problems to friends, family or professionals. Many do also receive misleading information when searching the Internet. Among several attempts to create mental health services for adolescents, technological information platforms based on psychoeducation show promising results. Such development rests on established theories and therapeutic models. To fulfill the therapeutic potential of psychoeducation in health technologies, we lack data-driven research on young peoples’ demand for information about depression.

Objective:

Our objective is to gain knowledge about what information about depression is relevant to adolescents with symptoms of depression. From this, we can develop a population-specific psychoeducation for use in different technology platforms. 

Methods:

We conducted a qualitative constructivist-oriented content analysis of questions submitted by adolescents aged 16-20 years to an online public information service. A sample of 100 posts containing questions on depression were randomly selected from a total number of 870. For analysis, we developed an a priori codebook from the main information topics of existing psychoeducational programs on youth depression. The distribution of topic prevalence in the total volume of posts containing questions on depression was calculated.

Results:

With a 95% confidence level and a +/- 9.2% margin of error, the distribution analysis revealed the following categories to be the most prevalent among adolescents seeking advice about depression: Self-management (33%), etiology (21%), and therapy (21%). Self-management concerned sub-categories on coping in general and how to open to friends and family. The therapy topic concerned therapy options, prognosis, where to seek help, and how to open to a professional. We also found young people dichotomizing therapy and self-management as opposite entities. The etiology topic concerned stressors and risk factors. The diagnosis category was less frequently referred to (11%).

Conclusions:

Psychoeducational content should contain information about self-management, therapy options and prognosis, where to seek initial help, how to relate to a health professional, and portray therapy as an active guiding process to enhance self-management. Adolescents also demand information about etiology. Psychoeducational measures should emphasis self-monitory skills when symptoms are less severe.