Mental health and the ballot box: A correlational analysis of Google searches for mental health and national election periods in the United States and the United Kingdom from 2008 to 2020.

These findings underline the composite relationship between electoral politics and popular engagement with mental health topics around national votes, suggesting that this is driven more by situational factors rather than a recurrent electoral effect or signs of burgeoning engagement. Detailed research is required to understand the nuances and causality behind these dynamics and their wider implications.