Study Analyzes Depression Discourse on Chinese Social Media
A computational text analysis study has been conducted to compare depression-related discourse between healthcare professionals and non-healthcare individuals on Chinese social media platforms. The study analyzed 120,895 comments from platforms like Zhihu, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu, focusing on emotional and thematic patterns. It found that non-healthcare individuals expressed a wider range of emotions, including anger, disgust, fear, sadness, surprise, and positive emotions, while healthcare professionals primarily expressed anger, fear, and positive emotions. The discourse from non-healthcare individuals centered on illness experiences, stigma, and treatment conflict, whereas healthcare professionals emphasized occupational stress, emotional labor, and professional fulfillment.