The Effect of Media Coverage of Celebrities with Panic Disorder on the Health Behaviors of the Public

ABSTRACTAlthough having a mental illness has become common, many people tend to hide their illness and avoid seeking treatment. One of the reasons for not seeking treatment is the stigma of mental illness. Celebrity confessions about their experiences of mental illness can reduce such stigma, because the public obtains more knowledge about the illness and becomes more familiar with it. However, little research has been conducted on the influence of a celebrity’s confession about mental illness on the public’s health behaviors related to the illness. The present study examined the effects of the media coverage of celebrities with panic disorder on information-seeking, providing information about the illness, and the number of people who visited a psychiatrist in South Korea. For this, we collected all the news articles on celebrities’ confessions regarding their panic disorder, search frequency of panic disorder, the number of questions on a Questions & Answers (Q&A) Website, a number of blog posts about p...