dc.contributor.author | Arillotta, Davide | |
dc.contributor.author | Guirguis, Amira | |
dc.contributor.author | Corkery, John Martin | |
dc.contributor.author | Scherbaum, Norbert | |
dc.contributor.author | Schifano, Fabrizio | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2021-07-21T09:43:23Z | |
dc.date.available | 2021-07-21T09:43:23Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2021-07-09 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Arillotta , D , Guirguis , A , Corkery , J M , Scherbaum , N & Schifano , F 2021 , ' Covid-19 pandemic impact on substance misuse: a social media listening, mixed method analysis. ' , Brain Sciences , vol. 11 , no. 7 , 907 . https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070907 | |
dc.identifier.issn | 2076-3425 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2299/24891 | |
dc.description | © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Submitted to Brain Sciences Manuscript ID: brainsci-1275549 on 10 June 2021. Reviewers’ comments received 23 June 2021. Revisions submitted 2 July 2021. Accepted 5 July 2021. Published online 9 July 2021. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11070907 (registering DOI) | |
dc.description.abstract | The restrictive measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic modified some previously consolidated drug use patterns. A focus on social networks allowed drug users to discuss, share opinions and provide advice during a worldwide emergency context. In order to explore COVID-19-related implications on drug trends/behaviour and on most popular psychotropic substances debated, the focus here was on the constantly updated, very popular, Reddit social platform’s posts and comments. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of r/Drugs and related subreddits, using a social media listening netnographic approach, was carried out. The post/comments analysed covered the time-frame December 2019–May 2020. Between December 2019 and May 2020, the number of whole r/Drugs subreddit members increased from 619,563 to 676,581 members, respectively, thus increasing by 9.2% by the end of the data collection. Both the top-level r/Drugs subreddit and 92 related subreddits were quantitatively analysed, with posts/comments related to 12 drug categories. The drugs most frequently commented on included cannabinoids, psychedelics, opiates/opioids, alcohol, stimulants and prescribed medications. The qualitative analysis was carried out focussing on four subreddits, relating to some 1685 posts and 3263 comments. Four main themes of discussion (e.g., lockdown-associated immunity and drug intake issues; drug-related behaviour/after-quarantine plans’ issues; lockdown-related psychopathological issues; and peer-to-peer advice at the time of COVID-19) and four categories of Redditors (e.g., those continuing the use of drugs despite the pandemic; the “couch epidemiologists”; the conspirationists/pseudo-science influencers; and the recovery-focused users) were tentatively identified here. A mixed-methods, social network-based analysis provided a range of valuable information on Redditors’ drug use/behaviour during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies should be carried out focusing on other social networks as well as later phases of the pandemic. | en |
dc.format.extent | 20 | |
dc.format.extent | 417765 | |
dc.language.iso | eng | |
dc.relation.ispartof | Brain Sciences | |
dc.subject | Covid-19 | |
dc.subject | drug misuse | |
dc.subject | mixed methods | |
dc.subject | NPS | |
dc.subject | psychonauts | |
dc.subject | Reddit | |
dc.subject | Novel Psychoactive Substances | |
dc.title | Covid-19 pandemic impact on substance misuse: a social media listening, mixed method analysis. | en |
dc.contributor.institution | Department of Clinical, Pharmaceutical and Biological Science | |
dc.contributor.institution | Centre for Health Services and Clinical Research | |
dc.contributor.institution | Psychopharmacology, Drug Misuse and Novel Psychoactive Substances Unit | |
dc.contributor.institution | School of Life and Medical Sciences | |
dc.description.status | Peer reviewed | |
rioxxterms.versionofrecord | 10.3390/brainsci11070907 | |
rioxxterms.type | Journal Article/Review | |
herts.preservation.rarelyaccessed | true | |