ArticleJournal of addiction medicine
A Content Analysis of Xylazine-associated Stigma in Web-based Media Driven by the Zombie Term and Stigmatizing Imagery.
Article in Journal of addiction medicine. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Zeroing in on xylazine - a mixed methods study to explore correlates of reported xylazine use and educational gaps among people who use drugs.Harm reduction journal · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDrug use-related stigma amplifies the harms faced by people who use drugs (PWUD). Media often dehumanizes PWUD, particularly those using xylazine, a veterinary sedative and opioid adulterant, by labeling them with terms like "zombie." This perpetuates discrimination and stigma, distracting from the public health crisis. To assess this, we conducted a content analysis to quantify the prevalence of stigmatizing terms like "zombie" and related imagery in xylazine-related web-based media.
methodsWe analyzed web-based news media reporting on xylazine from October 1, 2022, to September 30, 2023, using Google News. "Stigmatizing term" was defined as the use of the word "zombie," and "stigmatizing imagery" was defined as an embedded image of nonsterile or discarded drug use supplies, visibly intoxicated individuals, unhoused persons, or necrotic wounds. Two trained reviewers followed a standardized protocol to examine article titles, text, and images. Articles using stigmatizing term and/or imagery were coded as stigmatizing; and data were aggregated by month to assess any temporal changes in relation to federal xylazine alerts.
resultsIn a 12-month period, 910 news articles mentioned xylazine, 23.9% featured stigmatizing content, of which 57% (124/217) used "zombie" only, 26.3% (57/217) had stigmatizing imagery only, and 16.6% (36/217) had both. Stigmatizing articles peaked in March and July 2023, coinciding with federal alerts about xylazine in the opioid supply. Of the 601 articles with embedded images, 15% had stigmatizing imagery.
conclusionsStigmatizing content in web-based news media about xylazine continues to proliferate, highlighting the need for more efforts to challenge these narratives.
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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.