One year after the first round of this study drew to a close, the results are published in Clinical Psychological Science!
Our study aimed to understand what happens when we break down DSM diagnoses into their individual symptoms and rebuild our classification system from the ground up.
We reduced the DSM-5 to its constituent symptoms and reorganised them into a data-driven model based on the patterns in individuals’ (n = 14,762) self-reported experiences and found the new model below:
This model can be used to overcome the limitations of the DSM and help us find reliable and valid constructs to move the field forward.
If you are interested in understanding the results of the study in detail, you may access the published article here (free copy available here) or listen to our lead investigator, Miri Forbes, discuss the results on A Therapist Can’t Say That podcast (click here) and Under The Cortex podcast (click here).
Macquarie University also released a brief news article on the study, available here.
We have also launched an extended version of the survey that now covers all of the symptoms described in two different classification systems: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM; the traditional classification system) and The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP; a newer, data-driven classification system).
To learn more or participate in this new study, click here.
Since the study drew to a close in October of last year, our team have spent time coordinating the remaining random prize draws and contacting the lucky winners!
Now that the draws have all been finalised, we wanted to share a brief summary of the number of winners (by survey length), and the total amounts donated to charity.
If you’re interested in how we approached the prize draws, we used random number generators to select the winners. The number of winners was based on the proportion of people who completed each survey (mini, short, medium, long) – for example, most people completed the longest survey length, so this length has the most winners. This was to make sure that everyone had the same chance of winning no matter which survey they completed.
Main Survey
Cash Card Winners
Mini (AUD$20): 7 winners
Short (AUD$50): 8 winners
Medium (AUD$100): 6 winners
Long (AUD$250): 27 winners
Charity Donations:
Lifeline: $440
Headspace: $190
SANE Australia: $950
Mental Health Australia: $270
MensLine: $20
Butterfly Foundation: $250
Second Survey (one month later)
Cash Card Winners
Mini (AUD$120): 7 winners
Short (AUD$150): 4 winners
Medium (AUD$200): 5 winners
Long (AUD$350): 17 winners
Charity Donations:
Headspace: $750
Mental Health Australia: $850
In total, we sent out precisely $20,000! Twenty-seven people opted to donate their winnings, which meant we were able to send $3,720 to charities working to improve mental health.
Recruitment for our study has officially come to a close this month, after more than a year of seeking out people to participate!
This is a brief update on some information on the sample, thanks to the community groups who have helped us with recruitment, and our plans for next steps.
Who participated in the study?
In total, we have data we can use in our research from 15,650 people (77% of the 20,356 people who began the survey). The long (2-hour) survey was the most popular (46% of people selected this option), followed by the short and mini versions (21% each), and the medium (1-hour) survey was the least popular (12%).
We had hoped to include people with a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences in the study. This is often a challenge for online research, but the results were better than expected in many ways. For example:
While men and people from culturally and linguistically diverse groups were underrepresented in the sample, overall the diversity of the people who completed the survey surpassed our expectations.
Thank You!
We are deeply grateful to everyone who took the time to participate in the study. Your contribution will help to advance research improving the way mental illness is assessed and identified in research and practice.
We would also like to extend a big thank you to the community groups/organisations that helped us with recruitment along the way:
Next Steps
Now that the main study has officially closed, we are in the process of finalising the prize draws. The follow-up survey will close at the end of this month and we will finalise the remaining prize draws next month. Please keep an eye out for an email from helpuslearnmore@gmail.com to make sure you don’t miss out!
Next year we will be starting a new study following individuals’ symptoms over time. If you signed up to hear about future studies, you’ll receive an email about that too.
Finally, we’ll post updates here when we’ve finished the prize draws to let you know the amounts donated to charity, and when we have results from analysing the survey data.
Thanks again for your engagement in this research.
We now have over 10,000 complete responses to the survey!
We've had 16,005 people aged 16+ start the study. Of those people, 25% chose to do the mini (15 minute) survey, 20% the short (30 minute) survey, 12% the medium (1 hour) survey, and a massive 43% the long (2 hour) survey.
Two-thirds of people who started the survey have finished every single one of the (hundreds!) of questions, which is a fantastic result so far. People doing the longest survey are (understandably) the least likely to complete the whole thing (59%, compared to 66-76% finishing the shorter surveys), but still complete 85% of the questions on average.
We're very grateful to everyone who has completed the survey so far, and to everyone helping to spread the word. Our prize draws are ongoing - we have $10,000 of cash cards to be won for the main survey, and another $10,000 for the follow-up study.
When we've finished collecting the data for the main survey, we'll post a more detailed update on progress and next steps.
As of this month, more than 8,000 people have completed the survey!
Once again, thank you to those who have participated in the study to date. Your responses are invaluable to this research and ultimately to improve the way mental illness is assessed and diagnosed in research and practice.
Since our last update, a total of 4,737 people have visited the survey, with 2,719 people having completing it. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to participate in this study, we are well on our way to achieving our final goal of recruiting 20,000 participants!
As the study progresses, so do the number of participants who have been randomly selected as prize winners in the draw to win up to $250, issued in the form of a prepaid Mastercard or donation to a nominated mental health charity.
Prize draws are conducted each month, with the most recent being the month of January. Below are the number of winners (by survey length), and the total amount donated (AUD$) to charity, so far.
Prepaid Mastercard
Mini ($20ea): 5 winners
Short ($50ea): 5 winners
Medium ($100ea): 4 winners
Long ($250ea): 13 winners
Charity:
Lifeline: $120
Headspace: $70
SANE Australia: $550
Please be advised that the winners of the prize draw for the next prize draw, for the month of February, will be contacted in the coming weeks.
Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to participate in this study so far. As of the 1st of June, 2021, a total of 1,310 people visited the survey, with 823 people completing it. This is a fantastic start for the study.
We were also grateful to the many people who took the time to offer feedback on how we could improve the survey. Your feedback has led us to rewrite 43 of the items and to revise the instructions and response scale to make the questions as easy to understand as possible. We have also shortened all versions of the survey and added a new ‘miniature’ version that we estimate will take less than 15 minutes. We hope these changes will help to reduce response fatigue and further increase engagement and interest. Finally, we have condensed and revised the demographics questions to be more inclusive.
We are currently in the process of finalising the pilot stage of this project, ensuring we have a clear, comprehensive, and easy to use survey. The next step will be to recruit 20,000 participants to complete it, which will be invaluable for improving the way mental illness is assessed and diagnosed in research and practice.
We will update this page again as the study progresses. Thanks again for your interest in this research.
If you have not yet completed this study, or if want to share it with someone you think might be interested, you can access the survey here.
