Trial reportDrug and alcohol dependence2013
"I just wanted to tell you that loperamide WILL WORK": a web-based study of extra-medical use of loperamide.
Trial report in Drug and alcohol dependence, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 136 citations in OpenAlex.
- Attitudes Toward the Ethics of Research Using Social Media: A Systematic Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Pooled it
- Evaluation of the Effect of Loperamide on the Cardiac Repolarization Interval Using Exposure-Response Analysis.Clinical and translational science · 2025Trial
- Assessment of a candidate marker constituent predictive of a dietary substance-drug interaction: case study with grapefruit juice and CYP3A4 drug substrates.The Journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics · 2014Trial
- Evaluating Updated Fentanyl Immunoassays for Loperamide Interference.The journal of applied laboratory medicine · 2025Article
- Differential Analysis of Age, Gender, Race, Sentiment, and Emotion in Substance Use Discourse on Twitter During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Natural Language Processing Approach.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Article
- Social Listening for Patient Experiences With Stopping Extended-Release Buprenorphine: Content Analysis of Reddit Messages.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Loperamide poisoning resulting in death: a case report and literature review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- An Analysis of the Prevalence and Trends in Drug-Related Lyrics on Twitter (X): Quantitative Approach.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Loperamide-Induced Torsades de Pointes.Cureus · 2024Article
- The Potential Mechanisms behind Loperamide-Induced Cardiac Arrhythmias Associated with Human Abuse and Extreme Overdose.Biomolecules · 2023Article
- Perspectives of and Experience toward the Abuse of Antidiarrheal Drug (Loperamide) among Community Pharmacists: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Drug Abuse Ontology to Harness Web-Based Data for Substance Use Epidemiology Research: Ontology Development Study.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2022Article
- Loperamide-Induced Ventricular Tachycardia Storm.Avicenna journal of medicine · 2022Article
- Article
- Loperamide-induced cardiotoxicity: a case overlooked?BMJ case reports · 2021Article
- Loperamide-induced ventricular tachycardia storm.The British journal of cardiology · 2021Article
- Sex and Gender Differences in the Effects of Novel Psychoactive Substances.Brain sciences · 2020Review
- Pharmacological Aspects of Over-the-Counter Opioid Drugs Misuse.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2020Review
- Mining social media for prescription medication abuse monitoring: a review and proposal for a data-centric framework.Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association : JAMIA · 2020Review
- A Rising Concern of Loperamide Abuse: A Case Report on Resulting Cardiac Complications.Cureus · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
aimsMany websites provide a means for individuals to share their experiences and knowledge about different drugs. Such User-Generated Content (UGC) can be a rich data source to study emerging drug use practices and trends. This study examined UGC on extra-medical use of loperamide among illicit opioid users.
methodsA website that allows for the free discussion of illicit drugs and is accessible for public viewing was selected for analysis. Web-forum posts were retrieved using web crawlers and retained in a local text database. The database was queried to extract posts with a mention of loperamide and relevant brand/slang terms. Over 1290 posts were identified. A random sample of 258 posts was coded using NVivo to identify intent, dosage, and side-effects of loperamide use.
resultsThere has been an increase in discussions related to loperamide's use by non-medical opioid users, especially in 2010-2011 Loperamide was primarily discussed as a remedy to alleviate a broad range of opioid withdrawal symptoms, and was sometimes referred to as "poor man's" methadone. Typical doses ranged 70-100mg per day, much higher than an indicated daily dose of 16mg.
conclusionsThis study suggests that loperamide is being used extra-medically to self-treat opioid withdrawal symptoms. There is a growing demand among people who are opioid dependent for drugs to control withdrawal symptoms, and loperamide appears to fit that role. The study also highlights the potential of the Web as a "leading edge" data source in identifying emerging drug use practices.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.