ArticlePLOS digital health2022
Computational analyses identify addiction help-seeking behaviors on the social networking website Reddit: Insights into online social interactions and addiction support communities.
Article in PLOS digital health, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 31 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mpox on Instagram: Content Analytic Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2026Article
- "I Don't Know for Certain": A Content Analysis of Reddit Posters' Accounts of Drink Spiking.Violence against women · 2026Article
- Forging Online Community Among People in Recovery From Substance Use: Natural Language Processing and Deep-Learning Analysis of The Phoenix App User-Generated Data.JMIR mHealth and uHealth · 2025Article
- Information Needs for Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Using Buprenorphine Product: Qualitative Analysis of Suboxone-Focused Reddit Data.Journal of medical Internet research · 2025Article
- Exploring support provision for recovery from substance use disorder among members of a sober active community.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Effectiveness of Mutual Help Groups for Illicit Drug Use Disorders: A Review of the Current Literature.Current addiction reports · 2025Article
- Large-scale longitudinal analysis of the progression of alcohol use among members of a social media platform: an observational study.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2024Article
- Evaluating generative AI responses to real-world drug-related questions.Psychiatry research · 2024Article
- Digital Epidemiology of Prescription Drug References on X (Formerly Twitter): Neural Network Topic Modeling and Sentiment Analysis.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- High Interest in the Use of mHealth Platform for HIV Prevention among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Nepal.Journal of community health · 2024Article
- Social Media Discourse Related to Caregiving for Older Adults Living With Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: Computational and Qualitative Study.JMIR aging · 2024Article
- First-hand accounts of structural stigma toward people who use opioids on Reddit.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Article
- Analyzing Reddit Forums Specific to Abortion That Yield Diverse Dialogues Pertaining to Medical Information Seeking and Personal Worldviews: Data Mining and Natural Language Processing Comparative Study.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Article
- Article
- Misinformation and Public Health Messaging in the Early Stages of the Mpox Outbreak: Mapping the Twitter Narrative With Deep Learning.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- An analysis of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome Reddit posts and themes.Clinical toxicology (Philadelphia, Pa.) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAlthough social connection to others with lived addiction experiences is a strong predictor of long-term recovery from substance use disorders (SUD), the COVID-19 pandemic greatly altered global abilities to physically connect with other people. Evidence suggests online forums for people with SUD may serve as a sufficient proxy for social connection, however efficacy of online spaces as addiction treatment adjuncts remains empirically understudied. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to analyze a collection of Reddit posts germane to addiction and recovery collected between March-August 2022.
methodsWe collected (n = 9,066) Reddit posts (1) r/addiction; (2) r/DecidingToBeBetter, (3) r/SelfImprovement, (4) r/OpitatesRecovery, (5) r/StopSpeeding, (6) r/RedditorsInRecovery, and (7) r/StopSmoking subreddits. We applied several classes of natural language processing (NLP) methods to analyze and visualize our data including term frequency inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) calculations, k-means clustering, and principal components analysis (PCA). We also applied a Valence Aware Dictional and sEntiment [sic] Reasoner (VADER) sentiment analysis to determine affect in our data.
resultsOur analyses revealed three distinct clusters: (1) Personal addiction struggle, or sharing one's recovery journey (n = 2,520), (2) Giving advice, or offering counseling based on first-hand experiences (n = 3,885), and (3) Seeking advice, or asking for support or advice related to addiction (n = 2,661). DISCUSSION &
conclusionAddiction, SUD, and recovery dialogue on Reddit is exceedingly robust. Much of the content mirrors tenets for established addiction-recovery programs, which suggests Reddit, and other social networking websites, may serve as efficient tools to promote social connection among people with SUD.
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.