scholarly journals Reddit discussions about buprenorphine associated precipitated withdrawal in the era of fentanyl

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Spadaro ◽  
Abeed Sarker ◽  
Whitney Hogg-Bremmer ◽  
Jennifer S Love ◽  
Nicole O'Donnell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Use Disorder ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Induction Strategy ◽  
Application Programming ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Media Data

Background: Buprenorphine is an evidence-based treatment for Opioid Use Disorder (OUD). Standard buprenorphine induction requires a period of opioid abstinence to minimize risk of precipitated opioid withdrawal (POW). Our objective was to study the impact of the increasing presence of fentanyl and its analogs in the opioid supply of the United States, on buprenorphine induction and POW, using social media data from Reddit. Methods: This is a data-driven, mixed methods study of opioid-related forums, called subreddits, on Reddit to analyze posts related to fentanyl, POW, and buprenorphine induction. The posts were collected from seven subreddits using an application programming interface for Reddit. We applied natural language processing to identify subsets of salient posts relevant to buprenorphine induction, and performed manual, qualitative, thematic analyses of them. Results: 267,136 posts were retrieved from seven subreddits. Fentanyl mentions increased from 3 in 2013 to 3870 in 2020, and POW mentions increased from 2 (2012) to 332 (2020). Manual review of 384 POW-mentioning posts and 106 'Bernese method' (a microdosing induction strategy) mentioning posts revealed common themes and peoples' experiences. Specifically, presence of fentanyl caused POWs despite long abstinence durations, and alternative induction via microdosing were frequently recommended in peer-to-peer discussions. Conclusions: This study found that increased social media chatter on Reddit about POW correlated with fentanyl mentions. A subset of posts described microdosing as a self-management strategy to avoid POW. Reddit posts suggest that people are utilizing these strategies to initiate buprenorphine due to challenges arising from fentanyl prevalence in the opioid supply.

scholarly journals The impact of project ECHO on physician preparedness to treat opioid use disorder: a systematic review

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hunter M. Puckett ◽  
Jenny S. Bossaller ◽  
Lincoln R. Sheets
Keyword(s):  
Systematic Review ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Underserved Populations ◽  
Medical Condition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Use Disorder ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Project Echo ◽  
The Impact

AbstractOpioid use disorder (OUD) is a medical condition that has evolved into a serious and deadly epidemic in the United States. Both medical and psychological interventions are called for to end this growing epidemic, but too few health care professionals are trained to treat OUD. One proven model of training physicians and cross-disciplinary teams in treating a variety of disorders is exemplified by Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes), a collaborative tele-mentoring program in which specialists train health-care workers to treat medical conditions, especially those that affect underserved populations. This systematic review found that Project ECHO has the potential to effectively extend current services to patients suffering from OUD, but that there is also a gap in knowledge regarding this type of training. The articles that we reviewed all presented evidence that Project ECHO improves healthcare provider preparedness to treat OUD, especially in regard to improving knowledge and self-efficacy.

scholarly journals Health, Psychosocial, and Social issues emanating from COVID-19 pandemic based on Social Media Comments using Natural Language Processing (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oladapo Oyebode ◽  
Chinenye Ndulue ◽  
Ashfaq Adib ◽  
Dinesh Mulchandani ◽  
Banuchitra Suruliraj ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Natural Language Processing ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Psychosocial Issues ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Health Related ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Media Data

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a global health crisis that affects many aspects of human lives. In the absence of vaccines and antivirals, several behavioural change and policy initiatives, such as physical distancing, have been implemented to control the spread of the coronavirus. Social media data can reveal public perceptions toward how governments and health agencies across the globe are handling the pandemic, as well as the impact of the disease on people regardless of their geographic locations in line with various factors that hinder or facilitate the efforts to control the spread of the pandemic globally. OBJECTIVE This paper aims to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people globally using social media data. METHODS We apply natural language processing (NLP) and thematic analysis to understand public opinions, experiences, and issues with respect to the COVID-19 pandemic using social media data. First, we collect over 47 million COVID-19-related comments from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and three online discussion forums. Second, we perform data preprocessing which involves applying NLP techniques to clean and prepare the data for automated theme extraction. Third, we apply context-aware NLP approach to extract meaningful keyphrases or themes from over 1 million randomly-selected comments, as well as compute sentiment scores for each theme and assign sentiment polarity (i.e., positive, negative, or neutral) based on the scores using lexicon-based technique. Fourth, we categorize related themes into broader themes. RESULTS A total of 34 negative themes emerged, out of which 15 are health-related issues, psychosocial issues, and social issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic from the public perspective. Some of the health-related issues are increased mortality, health concerns, struggling health systems, and fitness issues; while some of the psychosocial issues include frustrations due to life disruptions, panic shopping, and expression of fear. Social issues include harassment, domestic violence, and wrong societal attitude. In addition, 20 positive themes emerged from our results. Some of the positive themes include public awareness, encouragement, gratitude, cleaner environment, online learning, charity, spiritual support, and innovative research. CONCLUSIONS We uncover various negative and positive themes representing public perceptions toward the COVID-19 pandemic and recommend interventions that can help address the health, psychosocial, and social issues based on the positive themes and other remedial ideas rooted in research. These interventions will help governments, health professionals and agencies, institutions, and individuals in their efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 and minimize its impact, as well as in reacting to any future pandemics.

Tracking via Geotagged Social Media Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Hardy
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Single Point ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Continuous Location ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
Application Programming ◽  
Media Data ◽  
Programming Interface

Over the past twenty years, social media has changed the ways in which we plan, travel and reflect on our travels. Tourists use social media while travelling to stay in touch with friends and family, enhance their social status (Guo et al., 2015); and assist others with decision making (Xiang and Gretzel, 2010; Yoo and Gretzel, 2010). They also use it to report back to their friends and family where they are. This can be done using a geotag function that provides a location for where a post is made. While little is known about why tourists choose to geotag their social media posts, Chung and Lee (2016) suggest that geotags may be used in an altruistic manner by tourists, in order to provide information, and because they elicit a sense of anticipated reward. What is known, however, is that the function offers researchers the ability to understand where tourists travel. There are two types of geotagged social media data. The first of these is discussed in this chapter and may be defined as single point geo-referenced data – geotagged social media posts whose release is chosen by the user. This includes data gathered from social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and WeiChat. The method of obtaining this data involves the collation of large numbers of discrete geotagged updates or photographs. Data can be collated via an application programming interface (API) provided by the app developer to researchers, by automated data scraping via computer programs, perhaps written in Python, or manually by researchers. The second type of data is continuous location-based data from applications that are designed to track movement constantly, such as Strava or MyFitnessPal. Tracking methods using this continuous location-based data are discussed in detail in the following chapter.

scholarly journals Public Perception of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinations on Social Media: Questionnaire and Sentiment Analysis

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (24) ◽  
pp. 13028
Author(s):  
Charlotte Roe ◽  
Madison Lowe ◽  
Benjamin Williams ◽  
Clare Miller
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Analysis Model ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Machine Learning Approach ◽  
Application Programming

Vaccine hesitancy is an ongoing concern, presenting a major threat to global health. SARS-CoV-2 COVID-19 vaccinations are no exception as misinformation began to circulate on social media early in their development. Twitter’s Application Programming Interface (API) for Python was used to collect 137,781 tweets between 1 July 2021 and 21 July 2021 using 43 search terms relating to COVID-19 vaccines. Tweets were analysed for sentiment using Microsoft Azure (a machine learning approach) and the VADER sentiment analysis model (a lexicon-based approach), where the Natural Language Processing Toolkit (NLTK) assessed whether tweets represented positive, negative or neutral opinions. The majority of tweets were found to be negative in sentiment (53,899), followed by positive (53,071) and neutral (30,811). The negative tweets displayed a higher intensity of sentiment than positive tweets. A questionnaire was distributed and analysis found that individuals with full vaccination histories were less concerned about receiving and were more likely to accept the vaccine. Overall, we determined that this sentiment-based approach is useful to establish levels of vaccine hesitancy in the general public and, alongside the questionnaire, suggests strategies to combat specific concerns and misinformation.

scholarly journals Assessing the impact of the Good Samaritan Law in the state of Connecticut: a system dynamics approach

2022 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nasim S. Sabounchi ◽  
Rebekah Heckmann ◽  
Gail D’Onofrio ◽  
Jennifer Walker ◽  
Robert Heimer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
System Dynamics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Use Disorder ◽  
Behavioral Changes ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Good Samaritan ◽  
Ed Visits ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Overdose Deaths

Abstract Background Although Good Samaritan laws (GSLs) have been widely adopted throughout the United States, their efficacy in individual states is often unknown. This paper offers an approach for assessing the impact of GSLs and insight for policy-makers and public health officials who wish to know whether they should expect to see outcomes from similar policy interventions. Methods Utilizing a system dynamics (SD) modeling approach, the research team conducted a policy evaluation to determine the impact of GSLs on opioid use disorder (OUD) in Connecticut and evaluated the GSL based upon the following health outcomes: (1) emergency department (ED) visits for overdose, (2) behavioral changes of bystanders, and (3) overdose deaths. Results The simulation model suggests that Connecticut’s GSL has not yet affected overdose deaths but has resulted in bystander behavioral changes, such as increased 911 calls for overdose. ED visits have increased as the number of opioid users has increased. Conclusions The simulation results indicate that the number of opioid-related deaths will continue to increase and that the GSL alone cannot effectively control the crisis. However, the SD approach that was used will allow policymakers to evaluate the effectiveness of the GSL over time using a simulation framework. This SD model demonstrates great potential by producing simulations that allow policymakers to assess multiple strategies for combating the opioid crisis and select optimal public health interventions.

Social Media as Mirror of Society

2017 ◽  
pp. 128-141
Author(s):  
Amir Manzoor
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Social Media Data ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Application Programming ◽  
Media Platform ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Data ◽  
Programming Interface ◽  
Specific Reason

Over the last decade, social media use has gained much attention of scholarly researchers. One specific reason of this interest is the use of social media for communication; a trend that is gaining tremendous popularity. Every social media platform has developed its own set of application programming interface (API). Through these APIs, the data available on a particular social media platform can be accessed. However, the data available is limited and it is difficult to ascertain the possible conclusions that can be drawn about society on the basis of this data. This chapter explores the ways social researchers and scientists can use social media data to support their research and analysis.

scholarly journals Survival Implications of Opioid Use after Blood and Marrow Transplantation

Blood ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 136 (Supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 2-3
Author(s):  
Noha N. Soror ◽  
Ashleigh Keiter ◽  
Qiuhong Zhao ◽  
Julianna Roddy ◽  
Sam Penza ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Board Of Directors ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Use Disorder ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Advisory Committees ◽  
Impact On Survival ◽  
The Impact

B ackground Premature death from opioid-related causes imposes an enormous public health burden across the United States. Between 2001 and 2016, the number of opioid-related deaths in the United States increased by 345%, from 9489 to 42 245 deaths (33.3 to 130.7 deaths per million population. Moreover, opioids may have immunosuppressive properties independent of their psychotropic effects; opioid use has been associated with increased invasive pneumococcal disease in a nested case-control study of 1233 Medicaid patients from Tennessee. In liver transplant recipients, opioid use disorder has been associated with increased mortality after transplant. The impact of opioid use disorder on patients receiving blood and marrow transplant (BMT) remains to be defined. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of all consecutive adult patients who had BMT (autologous and allogeneic) from 1/1/2008 through 1/1/2018 at the James Comprehensive Cancer Center. Overall survival (OS) was measured from the date of transplant to the date of death, censoring at date of last follow up if alive. Progression free survival (PFS) was measured from the date of transplant to the date of disease progression or the date of death, whichever occurred first, censoring at last follow up if no event. OS and PFS were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method and compared using the log-rank test. Opioid use (OU) was defined as a binary yes/no variable if an opioid was prescribed upon discharge from the hospital after BMT. The impact of OU, along with other patient, disease, and BMT related factors, on PFS/OS, was analyzed using Cox regression method. Results A total of 1585 patients were included in the analysis (Table 1). The median age at BMT was 58 (range=18-79) years; 59% were males; 60% had autologous transplants; and 58% were prescribed opioids upon discharge from the hospital. OU was significantly more in patients who were younger, have had allogeneic transplant, reduced intensity conditioning, had acute myeloid leukemia (AML), or higher BMT comorbidity index (CMI). On univariable analysis, OU was not associated with cumulative incidence of relapse (CIR) or PFS however it was associated with inferior OS; hazard ratio (HR)=1.25, 95% CI: 1.06-1.49; p=0.01 (Figure-1). There were no differences in CIR, PFS, or OS when autologous and allogeneic transplants were analyzed separately. Upon multivariable analysis of OS, OU lost statistical significance after controlling for age, diagnosis, type of transplant, intensity of conditioning regimen, CMI, and disease risk index (DRE). Of interest, OU independently predicted for superior OS at 100 days and 365 days post-BMT; HR=0.29, 95% CI 0.16-0.50 (p=<.0001) and HR=0.47, 95% CI 0.32-0.69 (p<0.001); respectively. Conclusion: Our results suggest that opioid use (OU) may have a long term negative impact on survival in BMT patients. The apparently protective effects of OU early on after BMT is elusive but may be possibly related immunomodulatory effects of opioids. A major limitation of our study is that OU is analyzed at a single time point at hospital discharge after BMT. We plan to undertake a more detailed analysis of ongoing OU after discharge and its impact on survival outcomes after BMT. Disclosures Brammer: Celgene Corporation: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics, Inc.: Speakers Bureau. Efebera:Celgene: Research Funding; Ohio State University: Current Employment; Pharmacyclics: Research Funding; Takeda: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Mims:Abbvie: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Jazz Pharmaceuticals: Other: Data Safety Monitoring Board; Syndax Pharmaceuticals: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Kura Oncology: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; Leukemia and Lymphoma Society: Other: Senior Medical Director for Beat AML Study; Agios: Consultancy; Novartis: Speakers Bureau. Chaudhry:Sanofi: Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Bumma:Sanofi: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Speakers Bureau. Khan:Amgen: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy. Devarakonda:Janssen: Consultancy. Jaglowski:Novartis: Consultancy, Research Funding; CRISPR: Consultancy; Juno: Consultancy; Kite, a Gilead Company: Consultancy, Research Funding. William:Kyowa Kirin: Consultancy, Honoraria; Merck: Research Funding; Seattle Genetics: Research Funding; Incyte: Research Funding; Guidepoint Global: Consultancy; Dova: Research Funding; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria.

scholarly journals “The idea is to help people achieve greater success and liberty”: a qualitative study of expanded methadone take-home access in opioid use disorder treatment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie W. Suen ◽  
Stacy Castellanos ◽  
Neena Joshi ◽  
Shannon Satterwhite ◽  
Kelly R. Knight
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Clinical Decision Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Opioid Use Disorder ◽  
Opioid Overdose ◽  
Opioid Use ◽  
Housing Status ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Overdose Deaths

AbstractBackgroundPrior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States (US) was already facing an epidemic of opioid overdose deaths. Overdose deaths continued to surge during the pandemic. To limit COVID-19 spread and to avoid disruptions in access to medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including buprenorphine and methadone, US federal and state agencies granted unprecedented exemptions to existing MOUD guidelines for Opioid Treatment Programs (OTPs), including loosening criteria for unsupervised take-home doses. We conducted a qualitative study to evaluate the impact of these policy changes on MOUD treatment experiences for providers and patients at an OTP in California.MethodsWe interviewed 10 providers and 20 patients receiving MOUD. We transcribed, coded, and analyzed all interviews to identify emergent themes.ResultsProviders discussed clinical decision-making processes and experiences providing take-homes. Implementation of expanded take-home policies was cautious. Providers reported making individualized decisions, using patient factors to decide if benefits outweighed risks of overdose and misuse. Decision-making factors included patient drug use, overdose risk, housing status, and vulnerability to COVID-19. New patient groups started receiving take-homes and providers noted few adverse events. Patients who received take-homes reported increased autonomy and treatment flexibility, which in turn increased likelihood of treatment stabilization and engagement. Patients who remained ineligible for take-homes, usually due to ongoing non-prescribed opioid or benzodiazepine use, desired greater transparency and shared decision-making.ConclusionFederal exemptions in response to COVID-19 led to the unprecedented expansion of access to MOUD take-homes within OTPs. Providers and patients perceived benefits to expanding access to take-homes and experienced few adverse outcomes, suggesting expanded take-home policies should remain post-COVID-19. Future studies should explore whether these findings are generalizable to other OTPs and assess larger samples to quantify patient-level outcomes resulting from expanded take-home policies.

#ColonCancer: Social Media Discussions About Colorectal Cancer During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vishal R. Patel ◽  
Sofia Gereta ◽  
Christopher J. Blanton ◽  
Alexander L. Chu ◽  
Neha K. Reddy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colorectal Cancer ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Early Detection ◽  
Language Processing ◽  
Application Programming Interface ◽  
Cancer Awareness ◽  
Personal Experiences ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Application Programming

PURPOSE Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Social media platforms such as Twitter are extensively used to communicate about cancer care, yet little is known about the role of these online platforms in promoting early detection or sharing the lived experiences of patients with CRC. This study tracked Twitter discussions about CRC and characterized participating users to better understand public communication and perceptions of CRC during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS Tweets containing references to CRC were collected from January 2020 to April 2021 using Twitter's Application Programming Interface. Account metadata was used to predict user demographic information and classify users as either organizations, individuals, clinicians, or influencers. We compared the number of impressions across users and analyzed the content of tweets using natural language processing models to identify prominent topics of discussion. RESULTS There were 72,229 unique CRC-related tweets by 31,170 users. Most users were male (66%) and older than 40 years (57%). Individuals accounted for most users (44%); organizations (35%); clinicians (19%); and influencers (2%). Influencers made the most median impressions (35,853). Organizations made the most overall impressions (1,067,189,613). Tweets contained the following topics: bereavement (20%), appeals for early detection (20%), research (17%), National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month (15%), screening access (14%), and risk factors (14%). CONCLUSION Discussions about CRC largely focused on bereavement and early detection. Online coverage of National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month and personal experiences with CRC effectively stimulated goal-oriented tweets about early detection. Our findings suggest that although Twitter is commonly used for communicating about CRC, partnering with influencers may be an effective strategy for improving communication of future public health recommendations related to CRC.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document