Needs Expressed in Peer-to-Peer Web-Based Interactions Among People With Depression and Anxiety Disorders Hospitalized in a Mental Health Facility: Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Hospitalization in psychiatric wards is a necessary step for many individuals experiencing severe mental health issues. However, being hospitalized can also be a stressful and unsettling experience. It is crucial to understand and address the various needs of hospitalized individuals with psychiatric disorders to promote their overall well-being and support their recovery. OBJECTIVE: Our objectives were to identify and describe individual needs related to mental hospitals through peer-to-peer interactions on Polish web-based forums among individuals with depression and anxiety disorders and to assess whether these needs were addressed by peers. METHODS: We conducted a search of web-based forums focused on depression and anxiety and selected samples of 160 and 176 posts, respectively, until we reached saturation. A mixed methods analysis that included an in-depth content analysis, the Pearson χ2 test, and φ coefficient was used to evaluate the posts. RESULTS: The most frequently identified needs were the same for depression and anxiety forums and involved informational (105/160, 65.6% and 169/393, 43%, respectively), social life (17/160, 10.6% and 90/393, 22.9%, respectively), and emotional (9/160, 5.6% and 66/393, 16.8%, respectively) needs. The results show that there is no difference in the expression of needs between the analyzed forums. The needs were directly (42/47, 89% vs 98/110, 89.1% of times for depression and anxiety, respectively) and not fully (27/47, 57% vs 86/110, 78.2% of times for depression and anxiety, respectively) addressed by forum users. In quantitative analysis, we found that depression-related forums had more posts about the need for informational support and rectification, the expression of anger, and seeking professional support. By contrast, anxiety-related forums had more posts about the need for emotional support; social life; and information concerning medications, hope, and motivation. The most common co-occurrence of expressed needs was between sharing own experience and the need for professional support, with a strong positive association. The qualitative analysis showed that users join web-based communities to discuss their fears and questions about psychiatric hospitals. The posts revealed 4 mental and emotional representations of psychiatric hospitals: the hospital as an unknown place, the ambivalence of presumptions and needs, the negative representation of psychiatric hospitals, and the people associated with psychiatric hospitals. The tone of the posts was mostly negative, with discussions revolving around negative stereotypes; traumatic experiences; and beliefs that increased anxiety, shock, and fright and deterred users from hospitalization. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that web-based forums can provide a platform for individuals with depression and anxiety disorders to express a wide range of needs. Most needs were addressed by peers but not sufficiently. Mental health professionals can benefit from these findings by gaining insights into the unique needs and concerns of their patients, thus allowing for more effective treatment and support.

Psychological Interventions and Bariatric Surgery among People with Clinically Severe Obesity-A Systematic Review with Bayesian Meta-Analysis.

AIM: To assess the effectiveness of perioperative psychological interventions provided to patients with clinically severe obesity undergoing bariatric surgery regarding weight loss, BMI, quality of life, and psychosocial health using the Bayesian approach. METHODS: We considered randomised trials that assessed the beneficial and harmful effects of perioperative psychological interventions in people with clinically severe obesity undergoing bariatric surgery. We searched four data sources from inception to 3 October 2021. The authors independently selected studies for inclusion, extracted data, and assessed the risk of bias. We conducted a meta-analysis using a Bayesian approach. PROSPERO: CRD42017077724. RESULTS: Of 13,355 identified records, we included nine studies (published in 27 papers with 1060 participants (365 males; 693 females, 2 people with missing data)). Perioperative psychological interventions may provide little or no benefit for BMI (the last reported follow-up: MD [95% credible intervals] = -0.58 [-1.32, 0.15]; BF01 = 0.65; 7 studies; very low certainty of evidence) and weight loss (the last reported follow-up: MD = -0.50 [-2.21, 0.77]; BF01 = 1.24, 9 studies, very low certainty of evidence). Regarding psychosocial outcomes, the direction of the effect was mainly inconsistent, and the certainty of the evidence was low to very low. CONCLUSIONS: Evidence is anecdotal according to Bayesian factors and uncertain whether perioperative psychological interventions may affect weight-related and psychosocial outcomes in people with clinically severe obesity undergoing bariatric surgery. As the results are ambiguous, we suggest conducting more high-quality studies in the field to estimate the true effect, its direction, and improve confidence in the body of evidence.

Meeting the Unmet Needs of Individuals With Mental Disorders: Scoping Review on Peer-to-Peer Web-Based Interactions.

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of online support groups are providing advice and information on topics related to mental health. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the needs that internet users meet through peer-to-peer interactions. METHODS: A search of 4 databases was performed until August 15, 2022. Qualitative or mixed methods (ie, qualitative and quantitative) studies investigating interactions among internet users with mental disorders were included. The φ coefficient was used and machine learning techniques were applied to investigate the associations between the type of mental disorders and web-based interactions linked to seeking help or support. RESULTS: Of the 13,098 identified records, 44 studies (analyzed in 54 study-disorder pairs) that assessed 82,091 users and 293,103 posts were included. The most frequent interactions were noted for people with eating disorders (14/54, 26%), depression (12/54, 22%), and psychoactive substance use disorders (9/54, 17%). We grouped interactions between users into 42 codes, with the empathy or compassion code being the most common (41/54, 76%). The most frequently coexisting codes were request for information and network (35 times; φ=0.5; P<.001). The algorithms that provided the best accuracy in classifying disorders by interactions were decision trees (44/54, 81%) and logistic regression (40/54, 74%). The included studies were of moderate quality. CONCLUSIONS: People with mental disorders mostly use the internet to seek support, find answers to their questions, and chat. The results of this analysis should be interpreted as a proof of concept. More data on web-based interactions among these people might help apply machine learning methods to develop a tool that might facilitate screening or even support mental health assessment.