Social networking online to recover from opioid use disorder: A study of community interactions

Abstract

Background Social media has increasingly become a venue for health discourse and support, particularly for vulnerable individuals. This study examines user-generated content of an online Reddit community targeting individuals recovering from opiate addiction. Methods 100 Reddit posts and their comments were collected from the online community on August 19, 2016. Posts were qualitatively coded for opioid use disorder (OUD) criteria as outlined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), as well as other common themes. Comments were coded for expression of distinct therapeutic factors (i.e., instillation of hope, universality, imparting information, and altruism). All posts and comments were coded for addiction phase of the author (i.e., using, withdrawing, recovering). Results 73 unique usernames authored the 100 posts. Among the 73 usernames, 33% (24/73) described enough symptoms in their posts to meet DSM-V criteria for OUD (16/73 or 22% mild severity, 7/73 or 10% moderate severity, and 1/73 or 1% high severity. Among the 100 posts, advice was requested in 43% (43/100) of the posts and support was sought in 24% (24/100) of the posts. There were 511 comments made on the 100 posts, nearly all of which contained at least one distinct therapeutic factor (486/511, 95%) with altruism being the most common (341/511, 67%). Conclusions This research provides validity to the supportive content generated on an online recovery-oriented community, while also revealing discussions of self-reported struggles with OUD among group members. Future research should explore the feasibility of incorporating social media-based peer support into traditional addiction treatments.

Community‐consumerism: negotiating risk in online drug communities

“…Several online communities have been found to provide social support and foster personal empowerment for individuals experiencing distress and coping with addiction recovery (D'Agostino et al . , Sowles et al . ).…”

Expanding the reach of alcohol and other drug services: Prevalence and correlates of US adult engagement with online technology to address substance problems

“…Little is known, however, about the nature of individuals’ participation on these sites, and whether they can be effective sources of recovery support. Thus, next steps to build on cross-sectional data including a survey of perceived benefit among participants on a recovery-specific site (Bergman et al, 2017), content analyses of online recovery community posts (D’Agostino et al, 2017), and an assessment of SUD outpatients’ openness to social network site-aided recovery (Ashford et al, 2018), might include longitudinal investigations of social network site-facilitated ROOT. If research shows individuals do, in fact, derive benefit from recovery-specific social network site participation, professional facilitation interventions(Kelly & Bergman, 2016) may be needed to link individuals with these novel resources.…”

Health and kinship matter: Learning about direct-to-consumer genetic testing user experiences via online discussions

“…In each subreddit, users can initiate a new thread by submitting a post, make a comment, or upvote another submission or (or downvote) comment. Due in part to its rich content and user engagement, Reddit has grown in popularity for researchers studying a broad range of health issues, including but not limited to mental health, eating disorders, weight loss, dermatological issues, and opioid abuse [38][39][40][41][42].…”