Neurol. praxi. 2021;22(5):425-429 | DOI: 10.36290/neu.2021.086

What are patients talking about on social networks?

doc. MUDr. Irena Doležalová, Ph.D., prof. MUDr. Milan Brázdil, Ph.D.

Centrum pro epilepsie Brno, I. neurologická klinika FN u sv. Anny a LF MU, Brno

During an encounter with the epilepsy patient, as doctors we often confine ourselves to the number of seizures and effect of treatment adjustment. We may thus sometimes miss the essential, which is the patient himself or herself and his or her problems. On the other hand, patients are often reluctant to confide in "a stranger face to face" in more detail. Recently, a new on-line space has emerged in which patients share their stories relatively fearlessly. When analysing this "new world", we can encounter views and attitudes which are interesting and inspiring for the doctor, as well as learn from our shortcomings here. This article has been inspired by social network analysis (Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, SnapChat, and TikTok). Currently, we tend to overlook social networks or to see them only as necessary evil. However, given their widespread use, we will have to reckon with them in the future, and we should better try to use them for the benefit of the patient as well as ourselves. The aim of this article is to present a brief overview of what is going on on social media. Due to the literature available, we rely particularly on foreign references, with Czech websites being mentioned briefly at the end. We do not believe that studying internet links should be in a doctor's job description; however, it is necessary to be aware of this "new space". The question remains of the further use of this information for clinical research or as part of epidemiological studies.

Keywords: epilepsy, social networks, the image of epilepsy on social network.

Received: October 12, 2021; Revised: October 12, 2021; Accepted: November 2, 2021; Prepublished online: November 2, 2021; Published: November 8, 2021  Show citation