RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Mental health related Internet use among psychiatric patients: a cross-sectional analysis

Background: The Internet is of great importance in today’s health sector, as most Internet users utilize online functions for health related purposes. Concerning the mental health care sector, little data exist about the Internet use of psychiatric patients. It is the scope of this current study to analyze the quantity and pattern of Internet usage among mental health patients. Methods: Patients from all services of the Department of Psychiatry at a university hospital were surveyed by completing a 29-item questionnaire. The data analysis included evaluation of frequencies, as well as group comparisons. Results: 337 patients participated in the survey, of whom 79.5 % were Internet users. Social media was utilized by less than half of the users: social networks (47.8%), forums (19.4%), chats (18.7%), blogs (12.3%). 70.9 % used the Internet for mental health related reasons. The contents accessed by the patients included: information on mental disorders (57.8%), information on medication (43.7%), search for mental health services (38.8%), platforms with other patients (19.8%) and platforms with mental health professionals (17.2%). Differences in the pattern of use between users with low, medium and high frequency of Internet use were statistically significant for all entities of social media (p < 0.01), search for mental health services (p = 0.017) and usage of platforms with mental health professionals (p = 0. 048)