Research Information System
JOURNAL OF HEALTH SCIENCES AND MEDICINE, vol.4, no.1, pp.91-95, 2021 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Aim: Posts about an important public health problem, schizophrenia, are increasing on Twitter, whose user number is multiplying every day. This disorder of complex aetiology is often stigmatized with society. In this study, we investigate the perspectives and attitudes of the community surrounding the terms “schizophrenia”, “schizophrene”, “schizophrenic”, and “paranoiac” on Twitter in Turkey. Material and Method: For approximately one month, a total of 1200 tweets containing the terms “schizophrenia”, “schizophrene”, “schizophrenic” or “paranoiac” were analysed and compared to their usage in a pilot sample . After establishing inter-rater reliability, the contexts of these terms were sorted into five main categories: a) mocking/humorous b) negative c) inappropriate d) anti-psychiatric e) medically appropriate. When possible, the age and gender of the posters were also recorded. Results: It was seen that these four words were usually used in “mocking/humorous” (39.2%) or “negative” (26%) contexts. The predominant use of the words was in a non-medical manner, with the most medically appropriate usage belonging to “schizophrenia” (26.7%) and the most “negative” and “mocking/humorous” usage belonging to “schizophrenic” (33.2% and 45.8%, respectively). In terms of gender, the four words were used mocking/humorous nearly equally by both genders (39.5% and 38.8%, respectively). Medically appropriate use was seen more often in posts by women than in posts by men (14.8% vs 7.5%, respectively). Conclusion: Our findings reveal a great deal of misuse of the term “schizophrenia” and its related words on Twitter. This misuse is quite pronounced in the “schizophrenic”, which is adjective forms of the word schizophrenia . At this time, where information is readily available, the stigma, ignorance and attitude problems towards schizophrenia are at an notable level. Keywords: schizophrenia, social media, Twitter, stigma, stigmatization, paranoiac