Using Social Media to Examine Themes Surrounding Fentanyl Misuse and Risk Indicators

Abstract

Background: Opioid misuse is a crisis in the United States, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl pose risks for overdose and mortality. Individuals who misuse substances commonly seek information and support online due to stigma and legal concerns, and this online networking may provide insight for substance misuse prevention and treatment. We aimed to characterize topics in substance-misuse related discourse among members of an online fentanyl community. Method: We investigated posts on a fentanyl-specific forum on the platform Reddit to identify emergent substance misuse-related themes potentially indicative of heightened risk for overdose and other adverse health outcomes. We analyzed 27 posts and 338 comments with a qualitative codebook established using a subset of user posts via inductive and deductive methods. Posts and comments were independently reviewed by two coders with a third coder resolving discrepancies. The top 200 subreddits with the most activity by r/fentanyl members were also inductively analyzed to understand interests of r/fentanyl users. Results: Functional/quality of life impairments due to substance misuse (29%) was the most commonly occurring theme, followed by polysubstance use (27%) and tolerance/dependence/withdrawal (20%). Additional themes included drug identification with photos, substances cut with other drugs, injection drugs, and past overdoses. Media-focused subreddits and other drug focused communities were among the communities most often followed by r/fentanyl users. Conclusion: Themes closely align with DSM-V substance use disorder symptoms for fentanyl and other substances. High involvement in media-focused subreddits and other substance-misuse-related communities suggests digital platforms as acceptable for overdose prevention and recovery support interventions.

Keywords:

• Fentanyl
• Reddit
• social media
• overdose
• substance misuse
• opioid use disorder

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Vivian Agbonavbare and Nnenna Anako for their work to manually code posts and comments for this study.

Declaration of interest

Patricia A. Cavazos-Rehg is a consultant for Rissana, LLC and PredictView.

Additional information

Funding

Funding for this work was provided by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [Grant No: K02 DA043657 (Dr. Cavazos-Rehg) and Grant No: R01MH117172 (Dr. De Choudhury)], the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities Research Training Program (MHRT) Grant No: T37 MD014218, and through a postdoctoral fellowship to Dr. Aledavood from the James S. McDonnell Foundation. No funding sources had any role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.