# Understanding who uses Reddit: Profiling individuals with a self-reported bipolar disorder diagnosis

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2104.11612 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.11612/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 5 of its 67 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 23 Apr 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [SMHD: A Large-Scale Resource for Exploring Online Language Usage for Multiple Mental Health Conditions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.05258/) (2018)
- [Listening between the Lines: Learning Personal Attributes from Conversations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.10887/) (2019)
- [Not Just Depressed: Bipolar Disorder Prediction on Reddit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.04655/) (2018)
- [Geocoding Without Geotags: A Text-based Approach for reddit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.03067/) (2018)
- [Leveraging Linguistic Characteristics for Bipolar Disorder Recognition with Gender Differences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.07366/) (2019)

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Towards Suicide Prevention from Bipolar Disorder with Temporal Symptom-Aware Multitask Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.00995/) (2023)
- [Modeling chronic pain experiences from online reports using the Reddit Reports of Chronic Pain dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10218/) (2021)
- [Exploration of the Usage of Color Terms by Color-blind Participants in Online Discussion Platforms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.11905/) (2022)
- [On the Interplay between Musical Preferences and Personality through the Lens of Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.18208/) (2025)
- [That's Optional: A Contemporary Exploration of "that" Omission in English Subordinate Clauses](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20833/) (2024)
- [Who are you, ChatGPT? Personality and Demographic Style in LLM-Generated Content](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11434/) (2025)
- [Beyond the Rabbit Hole: Mapping the Relational Harms of QAnon Radicalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.17658/) (2026)
- [When Words Divide: Diachronic Ideological Polarization in Political Discourse on Social Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.01176/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recently, research on mental health conditions using public online data, including Reddit, has surged in NLP and health research but has not reported user characteristics, which are important to judge generalisability of findings. This paper shows how existing NLP methods can yield information on clinical, demographic, and identity characteristics of almost 20K Reddit users who self-report a bipolar disorder diagnosis. This population consists of slightly more feminine- than masculine-gendered mainly young or middle-aged US-based adults who often report additional mental health diagnoses, which is compared with general Reddit statistics and epidemiological studies. Additionally, this paper carefully evaluates all methods and discusses ethical issues.