Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University, 3700 Lindell Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63108, United States.
Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, 660 South Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63110, United States.
Drug Alcohol Depend. 2017 Dec 1;181:5-10. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2017.09.010. Epub 2017 Oct 5.
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.
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).
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%).
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.
社交媒体越来越成为健康话语和支持的场所，尤其是对弱势群体而言。本研究考察了一个针对阿片类药物成瘾康复者的在线 Reddit 社区的用户生成内容。
于 2016 年 8 月 19 日从该在线社区收集了 100 篇帖子及其评论。帖子根据《精神障碍诊断与统计手册》（DSM-5）中列出的阿片类使用障碍（OUD）标准进行定性编码，以及其他常见主题。评论按表达不同治疗因素（即灌输希望、普遍性、提供信息和利他主义）进行编码。所有帖子和评论均按作者的成瘾阶段（即使用、戒断、康复）进行编码。
73 个唯一用户名撰写了 100 篇帖子。在这 73 个用户名中，33%（24/73）在帖子中描述了足够的症状，符合 DSM-V 阿片类使用障碍标准（16%轻度严重，7%中度严重，1%严重）。在这 100 篇帖子中，43%（43/100）的帖子请求建议，24%（24/100）的帖子寻求支持。在这 100 篇帖子上发表了 511 条评论，几乎所有评论都包含至少一个独特的治疗因素（486/511，95%），其中利他主义最常见（341/511，67%）。
本研究为在线以康复为导向的社区生成的支持性内容提供了有效性，同时也揭示了小组成员自我报告的 OUD 斗争讨论。未来的研究应该探讨将基于社交媒体的同伴支持纳入传统成瘾治疗的可行性。
