COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Substance Misuse A Social Media Listening, Mixed Method Analysis.
The restrictive measures adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic modified some previously consolidated drug use patterns. A focus on social networks allowed drug users to discuss, share opinions and provide advice during a worldwide emergency context. In order to explore COVID-19-related implications on drug trendsbehaviour and on most popular psychotropic substances debated, the focus here was on the constantly updated, very popular, Reddit social platforms posts and comments. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of rDrugs and related subreddits, using a social media listening netnographic approach, was carried out. The postcomments analysed covered the time-frame December 2019-May 2020. Between December 2019 and May 2020, the number of whole rDrugs subreddit members increased from 619,563 to 676,581 members, respectively, thus increasing by 9.2% by the end of the data collection. Both the top-level rDrugs subreddit and 92 related subreddits were quantitatively analysed, with postscomments related to 12 drug categories. The drugs most frequently commented on included cannabinoids, psychedelics, opiatesopioids, alcohol, stimulants and prescribed medications. The qualitative analysis was carried out focussing on four subreddits, relating to some 1685 posts and 3263 comments. Four main themes of discussion (e.g., lockdown-associated immunity and drug intake issues drug-related behaviourafter-quarantine plans issues lockdown-related psychopathological issues and peer-to-peer advice at the time of COVID-19) and four categories of Redditors (e.g., those continuing the use of drugs despite the pandemic the couch epidemiologists the conspirationistspseudo-science influencers and the recovery-focused users) were tentatively identified here. A mixed-methods, social network-based analysis provided a range of valuable information on Redditors drug usebehaviour during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further studies should be carried out focusing on other social networks as well as later phases of the pandemic.