Historique
Article de Périodique
Monitoring novel psychoactive substance trends on social media: Analysis of discussions and dashboard implementation (2026)
Auteur(s) :
LAKAMANA, S. ;
DAS, S. ;
SPADARO, A. ;
WIGHTMAN, R. ;
PERRONE, J. ;
SARKER, A.
Année
2026
Page(s) :
art. 113249
Langue(s) :
Anglais
Domaine :
Drogues illicites
Discipline :
EPI (Epidémiologie / Epidemiology)
Thésaurus géographique
ETATS-UNIS
Thésaurus mots-clés
RESEAUX SOCIAUX
;
SURVEILLANCE EPIDEMIOLOGIQUE
;
DROGUES DE SYNTHESE
;
FORUM DE DISCUSSION
;
METHODE
;
KRATOM
;
NITAZENES
;
ANTIDEPRESSEURS
;
EVOLUTION
Autres mots-clés
Résumé :
Introduction: Novel psychoactive substances (NPSs), due to rapid emergence and evolving use patterns, pose a significant public health surveillance challenge. Traditional surveillance lags street-level reality, necessitating the exploration of novel strategies and data sources like Reddit for continuous NPS trend monitoring and presenting a public dashboard.
Methods: We mined data from 60,601 subreddits between January 2015 and June 2025 for seven NPSs (kratom, xylazine, medetomidine, nitazenes, tianeptine, bromazolam, and 2C-B) using keyword-variants. We performed Mann-Kendall trend tests to assess temporal patterns, computed correlations to compare post volumes with National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS) drug report counts (2015-2024), conducted cross-correlation analyses at +/-2-year lags to identify lead-lag relationships, and created a public dashboard for data visualization.
Results: The dataset comprised 328,223 posts from 139,901 accounts. We observed moderate to strong correlations between Reddit volumes and three out of five NPSs with NFLIS reports: bromazolam (ρ = 0.81, p < 0.001), tianeptine (ρ = 0.48, p = 0.04), xylazine (ρ = 0.60, p < 0.001). Cross-correlation analyses indicated Reddit discussions preceded NFLIS reports for medetomidine (ρ = 0.93, lag = -2 years), bromazolam (ρ = 0.86, lag = -1year), tianeptine (ρ = 0.81, lag = -2years), and xylazine (ρ = 0.62, lag = -2years), suggesting Reddit discussions as a potential leading indicator. Co-mention of other substances with NPSs often matched known trends from retrospective data.
Conclusion: Reddit-based surveillance provides timely and complementary signals to traditional forensic systems for NPS monitoring. Interactive visualizations and downloadable aggregated statistics are available via our dashboard. [Author's abstract]
Highlights:
Reddit discussions may provide early insights about novel psychoactive substances.
Reddit data correlates with NFLIS lab reports for novel psychoactive substances.
Social media discussions preceded law enforcement drug detections for up to two years.
Polysubstance co-mentions on Reddit align with known real-world use patterns.
Public dashboard provides near-real-time NPS surveillance with downloadable data.
Methods: We mined data from 60,601 subreddits between January 2015 and June 2025 for seven NPSs (kratom, xylazine, medetomidine, nitazenes, tianeptine, bromazolam, and 2C-B) using keyword-variants. We performed Mann-Kendall trend tests to assess temporal patterns, computed correlations to compare post volumes with National Forensic Laboratory Information System (NFLIS) drug report counts (2015-2024), conducted cross-correlation analyses at +/-2-year lags to identify lead-lag relationships, and created a public dashboard for data visualization.
Results: The dataset comprised 328,223 posts from 139,901 accounts. We observed moderate to strong correlations between Reddit volumes and three out of five NPSs with NFLIS reports: bromazolam (ρ = 0.81, p < 0.001), tianeptine (ρ = 0.48, p = 0.04), xylazine (ρ = 0.60, p < 0.001). Cross-correlation analyses indicated Reddit discussions preceded NFLIS reports for medetomidine (ρ = 0.93, lag = -2 years), bromazolam (ρ = 0.86, lag = -1year), tianeptine (ρ = 0.81, lag = -2years), and xylazine (ρ = 0.62, lag = -2years), suggesting Reddit discussions as a potential leading indicator. Co-mention of other substances with NPSs often matched known trends from retrospective data.
Conclusion: Reddit-based surveillance provides timely and complementary signals to traditional forensic systems for NPS monitoring. Interactive visualizations and downloadable aggregated statistics are available via our dashboard. [Author's abstract]
Highlights:
Reddit discussions may provide early insights about novel psychoactive substances.
Reddit data correlates with NFLIS lab reports for novel psychoactive substances.
Social media discussions preceded law enforcement drug detections for up to two years.
Polysubstance co-mentions on Reddit align with known real-world use patterns.
Public dashboard provides near-real-time NPS surveillance with downloadable data.
Affiliation :
Department of Biomedical Informatics, School of Medicine, Emory University, USA
Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Department of Medicine, The Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, USA
Department of Emergency Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, USA
Department of Medicine, The Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, USA