title: Social Media, Big Data, and Mental Health: Current Advances and Ethical Implications.
abstract: Mental health (including substance abuse) is the fifth greatest contributor to the global burden of disease, with an economic cost estimated to be US $2.5 trillion in 2010, and expected to double by 2030. Developing information systems to support and strengthen population-level mental health monitoring forms a core part of the World Health Organization's Comprehensive Action Plan 2013-2020. In this paper, we review recent work that utilizes social media "big data" in conjunction with associated technologies like natural language processing and machine learning to address pressing problems in population-level mental health surveillance and research, focusing both on technological advances and core ethical challenges.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, 421 Wakara Way, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
authors.forename: Mike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Conway
authors.affiliation: Wellcome Trust, Gibbs Building, 215 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: O'Connor