The search tendencies of mental health related content on the internet during COVİD-19: Google trends analysis

The aim of this study is to examine whether time-related changes in COVID-19 period (such as measures like curfews, etc.) and mental health-related keywords' relative search volumes in Google Trends are related to and to compare Turkey's data with other countries. Between January 1, 2020 - November 1, 2021 is studied. Mental health-related search topics and terms are shaped by keywords from similar studies and Google Trends classifications. In weekly data of Turkey, SPSS Expert modeler function was used to detect non-random increases and decreases, data from 2016-2020 were used for training the forecasting model. In addition, searches of Turkey were compared with other countries, the averages were evaluated and it was determined with which dates the deviations above and below the confidence interval were correlated. A significant part of the minimum values of the topics concentrated on the beginning of the pandemic, March 2020; Meditation, anxiety disorder, cognitive behavioral therapy, depression and major depressive disorder searches have the lowest values, while sadness has the highest values. May 2020 is the month with the most searches; meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, anxiety disorder, insomnia have maximum searches. Except for cognitive behavioral therapy, they all peaked in the last day of the month which is the week restrictions were lifted. The month in Turkey differs most from other countries is December 2020. In this month which the restrictions of the second period are tightened, searches for suicide, meditation, cognitive behavioral therapy, depression and anxiety are high, while searches for sadness are low. While examining searches for terms, the biggest differences between forecasted and observed are in searches for insomnia (Turkish translation), loneliness, and meditation. The meditation search has many lower-than-expected dates. Insomnia and loneliness searches are significantly higher than expected. In Google searches, Turkey presents an active and variable picture of mental health, showing changes that correlate with the intensity of restrictions during COVID-19. The results showed that Google Trends data for Turkey could detect changes that correlate with social events and can be a meaningful real-life indicator.