Original research
by
Garg, Sanjana et al
Release Date
2021
Geography
USA
Language of Resource
English
Full Text Available
Yes
Open Access / OK to Reproduce
Yes
Peer Reviewed
Yes
Objective
Because those who misuse fentanyl are often a hidden and high risk group, innovative methods for identifying individuals at risk for fentanyl misuse are needed. Machine learning has been used in the past to investigate discussions surrounding substance use on Reddit, and this study leverages similar techniques to identify risky content from discussions of fentanyl on this platform.
Findings/Key points
Our machine learning risk model was able to detect posts or comments labeled as risky by our clinical experts with 76% accuracy and 76% sensitivity. Furthermore, we provide a vocabulary of community-specific, colloquial words for fentanyl and its analogues.
Design/methods
A codebook was developed by clinical domain experts with 12 categories indicative of fentanyl misuse risk, and this was used to manually label 391 Reddit posts and comments. Using this data we built machine learning classification models to identify fentanyl risk.
Keywords
Harm reduction
Illegal drugs
Digital health
