Can suicide risk and emotional states be detected in Twitter and Instagram posts of individuals at risk?

Can suicidal behavior be detected by analysing the emotional content and suicide risk assessments of Twitter and Instagram posts of individuals with a history of suicidal behavior in the last year, compared with individuals reporting nonsuicidal behavior?

Status

Recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Observational

Source

ISRCTN

Registry ID

ISRCTN60734624

Enrollment

225

Registered

2022-06-08

Start date

2022-06-25

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2022-08-22

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Suicide risk Mental and Behavioural Disorders

Interventions

Participants will complete an online survey and agree to the extraction of information from their social media posts. Enrolment to survey end will be approximately 15 min. When their profiles are not

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: 1. People aged 18 years or over 2. People with the ability to read and write in Spanish 3. Active users or have used Twitter and/or Instagram in the last year

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: 1. People aged 17 years or under 2. People with cognitive impairment or impaired reality judgment.

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
1. Suicide risk of individuals is measured using SBQ (Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire) and Plutchik Suicide Risk Scale 2. Suicide risk in the content of social media posts is measured on a scale of severity of suicide risk at the time of writing the tweet (real-time risk): from 0 (no existent risk) to 4 (extreme risk), by the computerized automatic classification system and also assessed by experts	—

Measure

Time frame

1. Suicide risk of individuals is measured using SBQ (Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire) and Plutchik Suicide Risk Scale 2. Suicide risk in the content of social media posts is measured on a scale of severity of suicide risk at the time of writing the tweet (real-time risk): from 0 (no existent risk) to 4 (extreme risk), by the computerized automatic classification system and also assessed by experts

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Secondary

Measure	Time frame
1. Emotional content analysis, including 5 basic emotions: anger, sadness, joy, surprise, and fear, will be measured on a scale of 0-100, by the computerized automatic classification system and also assessed by experts. 2. Emotional valence, measured on a scale 0 to 100, by the computerized automatic classification system and also assessed by experts 3. Severity of general suicide risk, measured on a scale from 0 (no existent risk) to 4 (extreme risk), by the computerized automatic classification system and also assessed by experts. 4. Daily time spent on social media, measured on a self-reported scale. 5. Psychopathology in the last year, measured on a self-reported item.	—

Measure

Time frame

1. Emotional content analysis, including 5 basic emotions: anger, sadness, joy, surprise, and fear, will be measured on a scale of 0-100, by the computerized automatic classification system and also assessed by experts. 2. Emotional valence, measured on a scale 0 to 100, by the computerized automatic classification system and also assessed by experts 3. Severity of general suicide risk, measured on a scale from 0 (no existent risk) to 4 (extreme risk), by the computerized automatic classification system and also assessed by experts. 4. Daily time spent on social media, measured on a self-reported scale. 5. Psychopathology in the last year, measured on a self-reported item.

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Countries

Spain

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ISRCTN (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Feb 4, 2026