Journal of General Internal Medicine · 7 authors, 6 centres
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This study analyzed 7.5 million Reddit posts across 71 drug-related subreddits from 2013 to 2021 using keyword searches and linear regressions. Fentanyl-related content increased 1292% overall, with opioid subreddits having the highest relative volume and multi-drug and stimulant subreddits showing the greatest rates of increase.
Researchers analyzed historical post data from 71 drug-related subreddits (categorized into eight substance categories) using the Pushshift Reddit dataset from 2013 to 2021. Overall fentanyl-related content increased 1292% (linear trend p≤0.001). Linear regressions confirmed significant upward trends in opioid, multi-drug, sedative, and stimulant subreddits. Limitations include that subreddits varied in existence across the study period, only original posts were analyzed (not comments), and the lexicon-based approach favors precision over recall. The findings suggest harm reduction messaging should extend beyond opioid-using populations.
