ArticlePloS one2015
The Canary in the Coal Mine Tweets: Social Media Reveals Public Perceptions of Non-Medical Use of Opioids.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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
42 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 91 citations in OpenAlex.
- #TurntTrending: a systematic review of substance use portrayals on social media platforms.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2023Pooled it
- What About Drug Checking? Systematic Review and Netnographic Analysis of Social Media.Current neuropharmacology · 2020Pooled it
- Methods for Detecting Suspicious Information From Individual Transactions of Pharmaceutical Products via Twitter (now X): Retrospective Observational Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Observational
- Multilingual analysis of public discourse on opioid and non-opioid analgesics through social media: a cross-sectional infodemiological study.BMC medical research methodology · 2026Article
- #Opioids: A Mixed-Methods Examination of Top Opioid-Related Content on TikTok.Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs · 2025Article
- Exploring the Use of Social Media for Activism by Mexican Nongovernmental Organizations Using Posts From the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign: Thematic Content Analysis.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Article
- Which social media platforms facilitate monitoring the opioid crisis?PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- Leveraging social media data to study disease and treatment characteristics of Hodgkin's lymphoma Using Natural Language Processing methods.PLOS digital health · 2025Article
- Discovering opioid slang on social media: A Word2Vec approach with reddit data.Drug and alcohol dependence reports · 2024Article
- Digital Epidemiology of Prescription Drug References on X (Formerly Twitter): Neural Network Topic Modeling and Sentiment Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Natural Language Processing-Powered Real-Time Monitoring Solution for Vaccine Sentiments and Hesitancy on Social Media: System Development and Validation.JMIR medical informatics · 2024Article
- Identifying Self-Disclosures of Use, Misuse and Addiction in Community-based Social Media Posts.Findings of ACL. NAACL · 2024Article
- Understanding Public Perceptions and Discussions on Opioids Through Twitter: Cross-Sectional Infodemiology Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Article
- A deep semantic matching approach for identifying relevant messages for social media analysis.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Using Social Media to Examine Themes Surrounding Fentanyl Misuse and Risk Indicators.Substance use & misuse · 2023Article
- Tracking the COVID-19 outbreak in India through Twitter: Opportunities for social media based global pandemic surveillance.AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings. AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science · 2022Article
- Contemporary English Pain Descriptors as Detected on Social Media Using Artificial Intelligence and Emotion Analytics Algorithms: Cross-sectional Study.JMIR formative research · 2021Article
- Text classification models for the automatic detection of nonmedical prescription medication use from social media.BMC medical informatics and decision making · 2021Article
- Esthetic Dentistry on Twitter: Benefits and Dangers.International journal of dentistry · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveNon-medical prescription opioid use is a growing public health concern. Social media is an emerging tool to understand health attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
methodsWe retrieved a sample of publicly available Twitter messages in early 2014, using common opioid medication names and slang search terms. We used content analysis to code messages by user, context of message (personal vs general experiences), and key content themes.
resultsWe reviewed 540 messages, of which 375 (69%) messages were related to opioid behaviors. Of these, 316 (84%) originated from individual user accounts; 125 messages expressed personal experience with opioids. The majority of personal messages referenced using opioids to obtain a "high", use for sleep, or other non-intended use (87,70%). General attitudes regarding opioid use included positive sentiment (52, 27%), comments on others peoples opioid use (57, 30%), and messages containing public health information or links (48, 25%).
conclusionsIn a sample of social media messages mentioning opioid medications, the most common theme amongst English users related to various forms of opioid misuse. Social media can provide insights into the types of misuse of opioids that might aid public health efforts to reduce non-medical opioid use.
Indexed as
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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.