Kariya Azusa, Okada Hiroshi, Suzuki Shota, Dote Satoshi, Nishikawa Yoshitaka, Araki Kazuo, Takahashi Yoshimitsu, Nakayama Takeo
Department of Health Informatics, Graduate School of Medicine & School of Public Health, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
Department of Social ＆ Community Pharmacy, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan.
JMIR Form Res. 2023 Nov 22;7:e45021. doi: 10.2196/45021.
Public concern with regard to over-the-counter (OTC) drug abuse is growing rapidly across countries. OTC drug abuse has serious effects on the mind and body, such as poisoning symptoms, and often requires specialized treatments. In contrast, there is concern about people who potentially abuse OTC drugs whose symptoms are not serious enough to consult medical institutions or drug addiction rehabilitation centers yet are at high risk of becoming drug dependent in the future.
Consumer-generated media (CGM), which allows users to disseminate information, is being used by people who abuse (and those who are trying to abuse) OTC drugs to obtain information about OTC drug abuse. This study aims to analyze the content of CGM to explore the questions of people who potentially abuse OTC drugs.
The subject of this research was Yahoo! Chiebukuro, the largest question and answer website in Japan. A search was performed using the names of drugs commonly used in OTC drug abuse and the keywords overdose and OD, and the number of questions posted on the content of OTC drug abuse was counted. Furthermore, a thematic analysis was conducted by extracting text data on the most abused antitussive and expectorant drug, BRON.
The number of questions about the content of overdose medications containing the keyword BRON has increased sharply as compared with other product names. Furthermore, 467 items of question data that met the eligibility criteria were obtained from 528 items of text data on BRON; 26 codes, 6 categories, and 3 themes were generated from the 578 questions contained in these items. Questions were asked about the effects they would gain from abusing OTC drugs and the information they needed to obtain the effects they sought, as well as about the effects of abuse on their bodies. Moreover, there were questions on how to stop abusing and what is needed when seeking help from a health care provider if they become dependent. It has become clear that people who abuse OTC drugs have difficulty in consulting face-to-face with others, and CGM is used as a means to obtain the necessary information anonymously.
On CGM, people who abused or tried to abuse OTC drugs were asking questions about their abuse expectations and anxieties. In addition, when they became dependent, they sought advice to quit their abuse. CGM was used to exchange information about OTC drug abuse, and many questions on anxieties and hesitations were posted. This study suggests that it is necessary to produce and disseminate information on OTC drug abuse, considering the situation of those who abuse or are willing to abuse OTC drugs. Support from pharmacies and drugstores would also be essential to reduce opportunities for OTC drug abuse.
各国公众对非处方药（OTC）滥用的担忧正在迅速增加。非处方药滥用会对身心产生严重影响，如中毒症状，且往往需要专门治疗。相比之下，人们担心那些可能滥用非处方药的人，他们的症状尚不严重到需要咨询医疗机构或戒毒康复中心，但未来有很高的药物依赖风险。
允许用户传播信息的用户生成媒体（CGM）正被滥用（以及试图滥用）非处方药的人用于获取有关非处方药滥用的信息。本研究旨在分析CGM的内容，以探究可能滥用非处方药的人的问题。
本研究的对象是日本最大的问答网站雅虎知识堂。使用非处方药滥用中常用药物的名称以及关键词“过量”和“OD”进行搜索，并统计关于非处方药滥用内容的提问数量。此外，通过提取滥用最严重的镇咳祛痰药BRON的文本数据进行主题分析。
与其他产品名称相比，包含关键词BRON的过量用药内容的问题数量急剧增加。此外，从528条关于BRON的文本数据中获得了467条符合资格标准的问题数据；从这些条目中包含的578个问题中生成了26个代码、6个类别和3个主题。问题涉及滥用非处方药会获得的效果、获得他们所寻求效果所需的信息，以及滥用对其身体的影响。此外，还有关于如何停止滥用以及如果成瘾向医疗保健提供者寻求帮助时需要什么的问题。很明显，滥用非处方药的人难以与他人进行面对面咨询，CGM被用作匿名获取必要信息的一种手段。
在CGM上，滥用或试图滥用非处方药的人正在询问关于他们的滥用期望和焦虑的问题。此外，当他们成瘾时，他们寻求戒除滥用的建议。CGM被用于交流有关非处方药滥用的信息，并且发布了许多关于焦虑和犹豫的问题。本研究表明，有必要考虑滥用或愿意滥用非处方药者的情况，制作并传播有关非处方药滥用的信息。药店的支持对于减少非处方药滥用的机会也至关重要。
