Perception of Depressive and Suicide Internet Memes in Clinical Depression

Background: the relevance of this study is determined by the high prevalence of depressive disorders and the growing interest of clinicians and psychologists in the significance of suicidal-depressive (SD) internet memes as both a risk factor for suicide behavior and a potential coping resource. The limited empirical research in this area has been conducted online with psychometric assessment of respondents' depression. The aim of study is to investigate the specifics of the perception of various categories of SD memes by psychiatric patients with depressive syndrome. Patients, Control Group, Methods: the study involved 84 patients from the Mental Health Research Centre with a diagnosed depressive syndrome (F31, F32, F33, F21 according to ICD-10) and 42 individuals without diagnosed mental disorders (control group). Methods: assessment of funniness, comprehensibility, and aversiveness of 38 internet memes divided into 4 groups: SD memes with three types of punchlines (“the idea of depression/suicide”, “negative attitudes towards a depressed/suicidal person”, “alternative to depression/suicide”) and control memes (not related to depression or suicide); psychometric scales and questionnaires (BDI, BHS, PhoPhiKat, CHS, ISMI9); author's own development methods (assessment of suicide representations, assessment of humor creation ability); clinical interview. Results: the clinical group demonstrated lower comprehension of the control memes (p = 0,001). Qualitative analysis revealed patients' high sensitivity to SD humor — ranging from complete rejection to an active use as a coping mechanism. In both groups, memes with the “alternative to depression/suicide” punchline were rated as the least funny, and memes with a “negative attitudes towards a depressed/suicidal person” punchline were rated as the most unpleasant. Patients preserve the ability to generate humor in stressful situations but employ it less often. Conclusions: SD memes with different types of punchlines are perceived differently. Their use in everyday communication by internet users requires extreme caution due to the high risk of negative reactions. SD humor is perceived as more acceptable if it is created and disseminated by people with personal experience of mental disorders. Indicators of the depressive symptoms' severity may include both increased attraction to and total rejection of SD humor.

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