Cargando…

COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis

The restrictive measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic modified some previously consolidated drug use patterns. A focus on social networks allowed drug users to discuss, share opinions and provide advice during a worldwide emergency context. In order to explore COVID-19-related implications o...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Arillotta, Davide, Guirguis, Amira, Corkery, John Martin, Scherbaum, Norbert, Schifano, Fabrizio
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8303488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34356142
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070907
_version_ 1783727099360575488
author Arillotta, Davide
Guirguis, Amira
Corkery, John Martin
Scherbaum, Norbert
Schifano, Fabrizio
author_facet Arillotta, Davide
Guirguis, Amira
Corkery, John Martin
Scherbaum, Norbert
Schifano, Fabrizio
author_sort Arillotta, Davide
collection PubMed
description The restrictive measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic modified some previously consolidated drug use patterns. A focus on social networks allowed drug users to discuss, share opinions and provide advice during a worldwide emergency context. In order to explore COVID-19-related implications on drug trends/behaviour and on most popular psychotropic substances debated, the focus here was on the constantly updated, very popular, Reddit social platform’s posts and comments. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of r/Drugs and related subreddits, using a social media listening netnographic approach, was carried out. The post/comments analysed covered the time-frame December 2019–May 2020. Between December 2019 and May 2020, the number of whole r/Drugs subreddit members increased from 619,563 to 676,581 members, respectively, thus increasing by 9.2% by the end of the data collection. Both the top-level r/Drugs subreddit and 92 related subreddits were quantitatively analysed, with posts/comments related to 12 drug categories. The drugs most frequently commented on included cannabinoids, psychedelics, opiates/opioids, alcohol, stimulants and prescribed medications. The qualitative analysis was carried out focussing on four subreddits, relating to some 1685 posts and 3263 comments. Four main themes of discussion (e.g., lockdown-associated immunity and drug intake issues; drug-related behaviour/after-quarantine plans’ issues; lockdown-related psychopathological issues; and peer-to-peer advice at the time of COVID-19) and four categories of Redditors (e.g., those continuing the use of drugs despite the pandemic; the “couch epidemiologists”; the conspirationists/pseudo-science influencers; and the recovery-focused users) were tentatively identified here. A mixed-methods, social network-based analysis provided a range of valuable information on Redditors’ drug use/behaviour during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies should be carried out focusing on other social networks as well as later phases of the pandemic.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8303488
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-83034882021-07-25 COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis Arillotta, Davide Guirguis, Amira Corkery, John Martin Scherbaum, Norbert Schifano, Fabrizio Brain Sci Article The restrictive measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic modified some previously consolidated drug use patterns. A focus on social networks allowed drug users to discuss, share opinions and provide advice during a worldwide emergency context. In order to explore COVID-19-related implications on drug trends/behaviour and on most popular psychotropic substances debated, the focus here was on the constantly updated, very popular, Reddit social platform’s posts and comments. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of r/Drugs and related subreddits, using a social media listening netnographic approach, was carried out. The post/comments analysed covered the time-frame December 2019–May 2020. Between December 2019 and May 2020, the number of whole r/Drugs subreddit members increased from 619,563 to 676,581 members, respectively, thus increasing by 9.2% by the end of the data collection. Both the top-level r/Drugs subreddit and 92 related subreddits were quantitatively analysed, with posts/comments related to 12 drug categories. The drugs most frequently commented on included cannabinoids, psychedelics, opiates/opioids, alcohol, stimulants and prescribed medications. The qualitative analysis was carried out focussing on four subreddits, relating to some 1685 posts and 3263 comments. Four main themes of discussion (e.g., lockdown-associated immunity and drug intake issues; drug-related behaviour/after-quarantine plans’ issues; lockdown-related psychopathological issues; and peer-to-peer advice at the time of COVID-19) and four categories of Redditors (e.g., those continuing the use of drugs despite the pandemic; the “couch epidemiologists”; the conspirationists/pseudo-science influencers; and the recovery-focused users) were tentatively identified here. A mixed-methods, social network-based analysis provided a range of valuable information on Redditors’ drug use/behaviour during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies should be carried out focusing on other social networks as well as later phases of the pandemic. MDPI 2021-07-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8303488/ /pubmed/34356142 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070907 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Arillotta, Davide
Guirguis, Amira
Corkery, John Martin
Scherbaum, Norbert
Schifano, Fabrizio
COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis
title COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis
title_full COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis
title_fullStr COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis
title_full_unstemmed COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis
title_short COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse: A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis
title_sort covid-19 pandemic impact on substance misuse: a social media listening, mixed method analysis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8303488/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34356142
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070907
work_keys_str_mv AT arillottadavide covid19pandemicimpactonsubstancemisuseasocialmedialisteningmixedmethodanalysis
AT guirguisamira covid19pandemicimpactonsubstancemisuseasocialmedialisteningmixedmethodanalysis
AT corkeryjohnmartin covid19pandemicimpactonsubstancemisuseasocialmedialisteningmixedmethodanalysis
AT scherbaumnorbert covid19pandemicimpactonsubstancemisuseasocialmedialisteningmixedmethodanalysis
AT schifanofabrizio covid19pandemicimpactonsubstancemisuseasocialmedialisteningmixedmethodanalysis