Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33245287›Full record

ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2020

Detection of Suicidality Among Opioid Users on Reddit: Machine Learning-Based Approach.

Hannah Yao, Sina Rashidian, Xinyu Dong, Hongyi Duanmu, Richard N Rosenthal, Fusheng Wang

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 21 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
21citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
7.8field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

21 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Article
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  7. Article
  8. Large-Scale Analysis of Online Questions Related to Opioid Use Disorder on Reddit.Proceedings of the ... International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media · 2025
    Article
  9. Review
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Investigating Substance Use via Reddit: Systematic Scoping Review.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023
    Article
  13. Using Reddit as a recruitment strategy for addiction science research.Journal of substance use and addiction treatment · 2023
    Article
  14. Article
  15. Automatic Detection of Intimate Partner Violence Victims from Social Media for Proactive Delivery of Support.AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science proceedings. AMIA Joint Summits on Translational Science · 2023
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Hannah YaoStony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-4424-5451
Sina RashidianStony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States.ORCID 0000-0003-1210-2939
Xinyu DongStony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-0125-3419
Hongyi DuanmuStony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-5707-0515
Richard N RosenthalRenaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-6011-809X
Fusheng WangStony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States.ORCID 0000-0002-9369-9361
Stony Brook University · USStony Brook School · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundIn recent years, both suicide and overdose rates have been increasing. Many individuals who struggle with opioid use disorder are prone to suicidal ideation; this may often result in overdose. However, these fatal overdoses are difficult to classify as intentional or unintentional. Intentional overdose is difficult to detect, partially due to the lack of predictors and social stigmas that push individuals away from seeking help. These individuals may instead use web-based means to articulate their concerns.

objectiveThis study aimed to extract posts of suicidality among opioid users on Reddit using machine learning methods. The performance of the models is derivative of the data purity, and the results will help us to better understand the rationale of these users, providing new insights into individuals who are part of the opioid epidemic.

methodsReddit posts between June 2017 and June 2018 were collected from r/suicidewatch, r/depression, a set of opioid-related subreddits, and a control subreddit set. We first classified suicidal versus nonsuicidal languages and then classified users with opioid usage versus those without opioid usage. Several traditional baselines and neural network (NN) text classifiers were trained using subreddit names as the labels and combinations of semantic inputs. We then attempted to extract out-of-sample data belonging to the intersection of suicide ideation and opioid abuse. Amazon Mechanical Turk was used to provide labels for the out-of-sample data.

resultsClassification results were at least 90% across all models for at least one combination of input; the best classifier was convolutional neural network, which obtained an F

conclusionsOpioid abuse is linked to the risk of unintentional overdose and suicide risk. Social media platforms such as Reddit contain metadata that can aid machine learning and provide information at a personal level that cannot be obtained elsewhere. We demonstrate that it is possible to use NNs as a tool to predict an out-of-sample target with a model built from data sets labeled by characteristics we wish to distinguish in the out-of-sample target.

Indexed as

FemaleHumansInternet UseMachine LearningMaleNatural Language ProcessingOpioid-Related DisordersSocial MediaSuicidedeep learningmachine learningnatural language processingopioid epidemicopioid-related disorderssocial mediasuicide

Identifiers

PMID33245287
PMCPMC7732714
OpenAlexW3110065222

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.