Inside the Bell Jar of Social Media: A Descriptive Study Assessing YouTube Coverage of Psychotropic Medication Adherence

The global mental health crisis is a longstanding one that impacts a multitude of patient populations worldwide. Within this crisis, psychiatric medication adherence is yet another complex public health challenge that continues to persist and contribute towards the chronic nature of the increased incidence and prevalence of psychiatric morbidities, which in turn result in the sequalae of substantial costs to humanity, the healthcare system, lost productivity, functioning and disability among patients with mental disorders. Psychotropic medication adherence is a significant part of psychiatric care and treatment across severity levels of mental illness. This health behavior is also filled with complexities, given the abundance of social and behavioral determinants as well as intrinsic and extrinsic factors that surround this health behavior. Examining contexts for promoting this health behavior change is crucial in determining directions for addressing it more optimally. There have been several published studies on considerations and interventions to address this health behavior; however, to date, no studies have been published on assessing coverage and directions of content across social media platforms, which trend as a rising health communication medium in our digital era. The present study is the first of its kind to dive into exploring the nature of widely viewed content and deliverers of this content on a prominent social media platform, YouTube, as the basis to determine potential directions for future intervention that can extend to reaching more patients struggling with this high-risk health behavior across the world, given the global reach of social media.