Citation

Batterham PJ, Calear AL, Carragher N, Sunderland M. Psychiatry Res. 2018; 262: 348-350.

Affiliation

NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.psychres.2017.08.048

PMID

28843625

Abstract

While there is evidence that mental health surveys do not typically increase distress, limited research has examined distress in online surveys. The study investigated whether completion of a 60-min online community-based mental health survey (n = 3620) was associated with reliable increases in psychological distress. 2.5% of respondents had a reliable increase in distress, compared to 5.0% with a reliable decrease, and decreased distress overall across the sample (Cohen's d = -0.22, p < 0.001). Initial depression/anxiety symptoms were associated with increased distress, but suicidality was not. Online mental health surveys are associated with low prevalence of increased distress.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Distress; Internet; Mental health; Suicide; Survey