From the Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (AS, JP); Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA (KO); Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine, Emory University, Woodruff Memorial Research Building, Atlanta, GA (SL, AS); Department of Emergency Medicine, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, RI (RW); and Department of Emergency Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY (JSL).
J Addict Med. 2023;17(6):691-694. doi: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000001216. Epub 2023 Aug 10.
Xylazine is an α 2 -agonist increasingly prevalent in the illicit drug supply. Our objectives were to curate information about xylazine through social media from people who use drugs (PWUDs). Specifically, we sought to answer the following: (1) What are the demographics of Reddit subscribers reporting exposure to xylazine? (2) Is xylazine a desired additive? And (3) what adverse effects of xylazine are PWUDs experiencing?
Natural language processing (NLP) was used to identify mentions of "xylazine" from posts by Reddit subscribers who also posted on drug-related subreddits. Posts were qualitatively evaluated for xylazine-related themes. A survey was developed to gather additional information about the Reddit subscribers. This survey was posted on subreddits that were identified by NLP to contain xylazine-related discussions from March 2022 to October 2022.
Seventy-six posts were extracted via NLP from 765,616 posts by 16,131 Reddit subscribers (January 2018 to August 2021). People on Reddit described xylazine as an unwanted adulterant in their opioid supply. Sixty-one participants completed the survey. Of those who disclosed their location, 25 of 50 participants (50%) reported locations in the Northeastern United States. The most common route of xylazine use was intranasal use (57%). Thirty-one of 59 (53%) reported experiencing xylazine withdrawal. Frequent adverse events reported were prolonged sedation (81%) and increased skin wounds (43%).
Among respondents on these Reddit forums, xylazine seems to be an unwanted adulterant. People who use drugs may be experiencing adverse effects such as prolonged sedation and xylazine withdrawal. This seemed to be more common in the Northeast.
唑吡坦是一种在非法毒品供应中越来越普遍的 α2-激动剂。我们的目的是通过吸毒者（PWUD）的社交媒体收集有关唑吡坦的信息。具体来说，我们试图回答以下问题：（1）报告接触唑吡坦的 Reddit 用户订阅者的人口统计学特征是什么？（2）唑吡坦是一种理想的添加剂吗？（3）PWUD 经历了哪些唑吡坦的不良反应？
自然语言处理（NLP）用于从在毒品相关子版块上发布信息的 Reddit 用户的帖子中识别提及“唑吡坦”的内容。对帖子进行定性评估，以确定与唑吡坦相关的主题。开发了一项调查，以收集有关 Reddit 用户的更多信息。该调查于 2022 年 3 月至 2022 年 10 月期间在 NLP 确定的包含与唑吡坦相关讨论的子版块上发布。
通过 NLP 从 16131 名 Reddit 用户的 765616 条帖子中提取了 76 条帖子（2018 年 1 月至 2021 年 8 月）。Reddit 用户将唑吡坦描述为他们阿片类药物供应中的一种不受欢迎的添加剂。61 名参与者完成了调查。在披露其所在地的参与者中，50 名参与者中有 25 名（50%）报告来自美国东北部。唑吡坦最常见的使用途径是经鼻使用（57%）。59 名参与者中有 31 名（53%）报告出现唑吡坦戒断。报告的常见不良事件包括长时间镇静（81%）和皮肤伤口增加（43%）。
在这些 Reddit 论坛的受访者中，唑吡坦似乎是一种不受欢迎的添加剂。吸毒者可能会出现长时间镇静和唑吡坦戒断等不良反应。这种情况在东北部似乎更为常见。
