Arillotta Davide, Guirguis Amira, Corkery John Martin, Scherbaum Norbert, Schifano Fabrizio
Psychopharmacology, Drug Misuse, and Novel Psychoactive Substances Research Unit, School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield AL10 9AB, UK.
Swansea University Medical School, Institute of Life Sciences 2, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK.
Brain Sci. 2021 Jul 9;11(7):907. doi: 10.3390/brainsci11070907.
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.
新冠疫情期间采取的限制措施改变了一些先前已形成的吸毒模式。对社交网络的关注使吸毒者能够在全球紧急情况下进行讨论、分享观点并提供建议。为了探究新冠疫情对毒品趋势/行为以及对讨论最多的精神活性物质的影响，此处重点关注了Reddit这个持续更新且非常受欢迎的社交平台上的帖子和评论。采用社交媒体倾听式网络民族志方法，对r/Drugs及相关子版块进行了定量和定性分析。所分析的帖子/评论涵盖了2019年12月至2020年5月的时间段。2019年12月至2020年5月期间，r/Drugs子版块的总成员数分别从619,563人增加到676,581人，到数据收集结束时增加了9.2%。对顶级r/Drugs子版块和92个相关子版块进行了定量分析，涉及与12类毒品相关的帖子/评论。评论最多的毒品包括大麻素、致幻剂、阿片类/阿片样物质、酒精、兴奋剂和处方药。定性分析聚焦于四个子版块，涉及约1685篇帖子和3263条评论。初步确定了四个主要讨论主题（例如，封锁相关的免疫力与吸毒问题；与毒品相关的行为/隔离后计划问题；封锁相关的精神病理学问题；以及新冠疫情期间的 peer-to-peer 建议）和四类Reddit用户（例如，尽管疫情仍继续吸毒的人；“沙发流行病学家”；阴谋论者/伪科学影响者；以及专注于康复的用户）。基于社交网络的混合方法分析提供了一系列关于新冠疫情第一阶段Reddit用户吸毒/行为的有价值信息。后续研究应聚焦于其他社交网络以及疫情的后续阶段。
