Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38800065›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in psychiatry2024

Hype or hope? Ketamine for the treatment of depression: results from the application of deep learning to Twitter posts from 2010 to 2023.

Qin Xiang Ng, Yu Liang Lim, Clarence Ong, Silas New, Johnson Fam, Tau Ming Liew

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Trial
  2. Understanding social media discourse on antidepressants: unsupervised and sentiment analysis using X.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2025
    Article
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.

Qin Xiang Ng *Health Services Research Unit, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
Yu Liang Lim *Department of General Medicine, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
Clarence OngSaw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore.
Silas NewDepartment of Pharmacy, Changi General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
Johnson FamDepartment of Psychiatry, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore, Singapore.
Tau Ming LiewSaw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System, Singapore, Singapore.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Objective: To investigate societal perceptions of ketamine's use in depression therapy by analysing Twitter posts from January 1, 2010 to April 1, 2023. Methods: Using Twitter as the social media platform of choice, and employing search terms based on (depression OR depressed OR depressive) AND (ketamine OR esketamine OR Spravato), we collected English-language tweets from January 1, 2010, to April 1, 2023. Using unsupervised machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) techniques, including Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) and BERTopic, the study identified prevalent topics surrounding public chatter around the use of ketamine in depression treatment. Manual thematic analyses further refined these topics into themes. Results: Out of an initial dataset of 99,405 tweets, after removing duplicate tweets, re-tweets and tweets posted by organizations over Twitter, 18,899 unique tweets from presumably individual users were analysed. Analysis of temporal trends revealed a shift in public attitudes, particularly after the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA)'s 2019 approval of ketamine for depression. Three major themes emerged: a changing regulatory landscape, cautious optimism, and personal experiences with the drug. There was an initial spike in discussions post-FDA approval in 2019. Thereafter, cautious optimism (Theme 2) decreased among the general public, with more personal accounts (Theme 3) highlighting the potential benefits for some treatment-resistant patients. Limitations of the study include Twitter's inherent biases towards younger, English-speaking demographics. Conclusion: In summary, the public's multifaceted perception leans towards a hopeful stance on ketamine's therapeutic potential for depression.

Indexed as

anti-depressantBERTdepressionketaminesocial media

Identifiers

PMID38800065
PMCPMC11117142

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.