Global Research on Pandemics or Epidemics and Mental Health: A Natural Language Processing Study

The global research on pandemics or epidemics and mental health has been growing exponentially recently, which cannot be integrated through traditional systematic review. Our study aims to systematically synthesize the evidence using natural language processing (NLP) techniques.

Multiple databases were searched using titles, abstracts, and keywords. We systematically identified relevant literature published prior to Dec 31, 2023, using NLP techniques such as text classification, topic modelling and geoparsing methods. Relevant articles were categorized by content, date, and geographic location, outputting evidence heat maps, geographical maps, and narrative synthesis of trends in related publications.

Our NLP analysis identified 77,915 studies in the area of pandemics or epidemics and mental health published before Dec 31, 2023. The Covid pandemic was the most common, followed by SARS and HIV/AIDS; Anxiety and stress were the most frequently studied mental health outcomes; Social support and healthcare were the most common way of coping. Geographically, the evidence base was dominated by studies from high-income countries, with scant evidence from low-income counties. Co-occurrence of pandemics or epidemics and fear, depression, stress was common. Anxiety was one of the three most common topics in all continents except North America.

Our findings suggest the importance and feasibility of using NLP to comprehensively map pandemics or epidemics and mental health in the age of big literature. The review identifies clear themes for future clinical and public health research, and is critical for designing evidence-based approaches to reduce the negative mental health impacts of pandemics or epidemics.