Turning to Reddit for Mental Health Support | CEU Research Insights
Source: https://www.ceu.edu/news/2026-03/turning-reddit-mental-health-support-ceu-research-insights
Archived: 2026-04-23 17:14
Turning to Reddit for Mental Health Support | CEU Research Insights
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Bojan Evkoski. Photo by Sotiris Bekas.
Today, online platforms, are becoming an important part of how people seek mental health support. This means that the understanding of mental health conditions is already being shaped outside clinical settings. In a
recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research
, CEU PhD candidate
Bojan Evkoski
with his supervisor, Associate Professor
Petra Kralj Novak
from the
Department of Network and Data Science
, and Assistant Professor
Srebrenka Letina
from the
University of Limerick
used network analysis with data from Reddit forums to examine how mental health conditions relate to one another beyond formal diagnostic boundaries.
“These spaces are very valuable because they give us access to people who are typically underrepresented in clinical and survey data due to stigma, severity biases, or limited access to care,” said Evkoski. In his research, Evkoski works with large-scale data to better understand the complexity of mental health. For this study in particular, the researchers turned to peer support forums on Reddit, each dedicated to a specific mental health condition.
They constructed a network of mental disorders based on co-posting activity of over half a million Reddit users across a broad set of peer support forums. They then compared this structure to the diagnostic criteria defined in the
International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
, the global standard published by the
World Health Organization (WHO)
. This approach allowed them to contribute to the ongoing discussion on comorbidity and the classification of disorders from a lived-experience perspective.
A More Complete Understanding of Mental Health
“We found that mental health conditions do not exist in isolation. We observed strong connections between them, even across traditional categories,” said Evkoski, further noting the importance of holistic treatments given the interconnected nature of mental health conditions.
Based on the Reddit data, the researchers found several conditions to be central in the structure of disorders including depersonalisation, PTSD, and avoidant personality. Evkoski added: “This points to the important concept of
transdiagnostics
, which are shared mechanisms that cut across disorders and may be key targets for treatment.”
A network map of mental health communities on Reddit showing how conditions are connected through shared user participation. Colored nodes represent ICD-10 disorder groups, while links indicate statistically significant overlaps in community membership, revealing a cross-diagnostic structure that differs from formal psychiatric classifications.
Given the use of online platforms for mental health support, Evkoski sees an opportunity to bring such perspectives closer to clinical knowledge, and to build a more complete understanding of mental health.
The Research Explained
Cultivating Doctoral Research at CEU
Supporting the doctoral research of Evkoski, Kralj Novak, a co-author, provided supervision and advising on the research. “I see supervision as building the right environment for PhD candidates to gain experience and grow into independent researchers,” said Kralj Novak, who is also the Director of the
Master of Science in Social Data Science program
. “In interdisciplinary work, this means bringing together data scientists and domain experts and channeling the enthusiasm of young researchers into framing relevant questions that can deliver real impact.”
She said that this approach was central to the project, noting that rather than merely applying data science, the collaboration with Letina shaped the research from the outset. “Such interdisciplinary collaboration leads to work that is both methodologically rigorous and genuinely relevant. This is reflected in the outcome,” said Kralj Novak. “In this case, we turned large-scale, real-world data into actionable evidence that can help practitioners and policymakers better align with how mental health conditions are experienced in everyday life, particularly among groups often overlooked.”
Read the paper:
“The Structure of Psychopathology on Reddit: Network Analysis of Mental Health Communities in Relation to the ICD Diagnostic System”
Learn about CEU’s
master's
and
doctoral programs
from the Department of Network and Data Science
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Department of Network and Data Science
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Skip to main content
Search
Bojan Evkoski. Photo by Sotiris Bekas.
Today, online platforms, are becoming an important part of how people seek mental health support. This means that the understanding of mental health conditions is already being shaped outside clinical settings. In a
recent study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research
, CEU PhD candidate
Bojan Evkoski
with his supervisor, Associate Professor
Petra Kralj Novak
from the
Department of Network and Data Science
, and Assistant Professor
Srebrenka Letina
from the
University of Limerick
used network analysis with data from Reddit forums to examine how mental health conditions relate to one another beyond formal diagnostic boundaries.
“These spaces are very valuable because they give us access to people who are typically underrepresented in clinical and survey data due to stigma, severity biases, or limited access to care,” said Evkoski. In his research, Evkoski works with large-scale data to better understand the complexity of mental health. For this study in particular, the researchers turned to peer support forums on Reddit, each dedicated to a specific mental health condition.
They constructed a network of mental disorders based on co-posting activity of over half a million Reddit users across a broad set of peer support forums. They then compared this structure to the diagnostic criteria defined in the
International Classification of Diseases (ICD)
, the global standard published by the
World Health Organization (WHO)
. This approach allowed them to contribute to the ongoing discussion on comorbidity and the classification of disorders from a lived-experience perspective.
A More Complete Understanding of Mental Health
“We found that mental health conditions do not exist in isolation. We observed strong connections between them, even across traditional categories,” said Evkoski, further noting the importance of holistic treatments given the interconnected nature of mental health conditions.
Based on the Reddit data, the researchers found several conditions to be central in the structure of disorders including depersonalisation, PTSD, and avoidant personality. Evkoski added: “This points to the important concept of
transdiagnostics
, which are shared mechanisms that cut across disorders and may be key targets for treatment.”
A network map of mental health communities on Reddit showing how conditions are connected through shared user participation. Colored nodes represent ICD-10 disorder groups, while links indicate statistically significant overlaps in community membership, revealing a cross-diagnostic structure that differs from formal psychiatric classifications.
Given the use of online platforms for mental health support, Evkoski sees an opportunity to bring such perspectives closer to clinical knowledge, and to build a more complete understanding of mental health.
The Research Explained
Cultivating Doctoral Research at CEU
Supporting the doctoral research of Evkoski, Kralj Novak, a co-author, provided supervision and advising on the research. “I see supervision as building the right environment for PhD candidates to gain experience and grow into independent researchers,” said Kralj Novak, who is also the Director of the
Master of Science in Social Data Science program
. “In interdisciplinary work, this means bringing together data scientists and domain experts and channeling the enthusiasm of young researchers into framing relevant questions that can deliver real impact.”
She said that this approach was central to the project, noting that rather than merely applying data science, the collaboration with Letina shaped the research from the outset. “Such interdisciplinary collaboration leads to work that is both methodologically rigorous and genuinely relevant. This is reflected in the outcome,” said Kralj Novak. “In this case, we turned large-scale, real-world data into actionable evidence that can help practitioners and policymakers better align with how mental health conditions are experienced in everyday life, particularly among groups often overlooked.”
Read the paper:
“The Structure of Psychopathology on Reddit: Network Analysis of Mental Health Communities in Relation to the ICD Diagnostic System”
Learn about CEU’s
master's
and
doctoral programs
from the Department of Network and Data Science
News
Research News
Videos
Redefining the Rules
Department of Network and Data Science
Recent News
April 23, 2026
CEU Students Experience Real-World Finance at the Vienna Stock Exchange
Read more
April 23, 2026
Central European University Launches Collaboration with GitHub to Advance AI-Ready Education and Research
Read more
April 22, 2026
DNDS at the Long Night of Research
Read more
Related Stories
More News
January 9, 2026
Vienna Data Analytics Jamboree Bridges Academia and Industry
January 12, 2026
Laszlo Bruszt to Receive 2025 Dr. Elemer Hantos Prize
January 15, 2026
Invisible University for Ukraine Convenes Winter School in Budapest on Pluralism, War, and the Global Public Sphere
More News