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dc.contributor.authorArillotta, Davide
dc.contributor.authorGuirguis, Amira
dc.contributor.authorCorkery, John Martin
dc.contributor.authorScherbaum, Norbert
dc.contributor.authorSchifano, Fabrizio
dc.date.accessioned2021-07-21T09:43:23Z
dc.date.available2021-07-21T09:43:23Z
dc.date.issued2021-07-09
dc.identifier.citationArillotta , 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.issn2076-3425
dc.identifier.urihttp://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.abstractThe 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.extent20
dc.format.extent417765
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofBrain Sciences
dc.subjectCovid-19
dc.subjectdrug misuse
dc.subjectmixed methods
dc.subjectNPS
dc.subjectpsychonauts
dc.subjectReddit
dc.subjectNovel Psychoactive Substances
dc.titleCovid-19 pandemic impact on substance misuse: a social media listening, mixed method analysis.en
dc.contributor.institutionDepartment of Clinical, Pharmaceutical and Biological Science
dc.contributor.institutionCentre for Health Services and Clinical Research
dc.contributor.institutionPsychopharmacology, Drug Misuse and Novel Psychoactive Substances Unit
dc.contributor.institutionSchool of Life and Medical Sciences
dc.description.statusPeer reviewed
rioxxterms.versionofrecord10.3390/brainsci11070907
rioxxterms.typeJournal Article/Review
herts.preservation.rarelyaccessedtrue


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