Using Twitter to compare attitudes towards schizophrenia and psychosis: Investigating the prevalence of stigma

Thirkettle, Claire, Oduola, Sheri, McEntegart, Lucy and Beazley, Peter (2025) Using Twitter to compare attitudes towards schizophrenia and psychosis: Investigating the prevalence of stigma. Mental Health Science. ISSN 2642-3588 (In Press)

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Abstract

Introduction: Schizophrenia remains one of the most stigmatised psychiatric diagnoses. It has been argued that the condition requires renaming. Psychosis is often used as an alternative term in UK clinical practice. We explored the prevalence of stigmatising attitudes towards schizophrenia and psychosis using Twitter.   Methods: Quantitative content analysis was used to analyse Tweets (n=423) containing the terms ‘psychosis’, ‘psychotic’, ‘schizophrenia’ or ‘schizophrenic’. Tweets were categorised according to the presence and type of stigma.   Results: Both schizophrenia and psychosis were frequently stigmatised on Twitter. However, Tweets using the terms psychosis/tic were significantly more likely to contain stigmatising attitudes (70.9%, n=151) than Tweets using the terms schizophrenia/c (42.4%, n=89; p<.001). Adjective terms were significantly more commonly stigmatised (76.6%, n=164) than nouns (36.4%, n=76; p<.001). The term ‘psychotic’ was frequently used pejoratively.   Conclusion: Both ‘schizophrenia’ and ‘psychosis’ are associated with high levels of stigma on Twitter. If schizophrenia is to be renamed, psychosis may not be a suitable replacement.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability statement: The data are publicly available via this link: https://osf.io/zarux/. Consistent with our ethical approval, the redacted datafile does not include identifying details of the original author of the Tweet.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	stigma,psychosis,schizophrenia,twitter,social media
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Norwich Epidemiology Centre Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Promotion Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Population Health
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	24 Jun 2025 12:30
Last Modified:	24 Jun 2025 12:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/99694
DOI:	issn:2642-3588

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