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Large-Scale Analysis of Online Questions Related to Opioid Use Disorder on Reddit
Tanmay Laud1,2, Akadia Kacha-Ochana3, Steven A Sumner3
1Hippocratic AI.
Proceedings of the ... International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media. International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media
|January 7, 2026
Summary
Online communities offer support for opioid use disorder (OUD), but information may not be verified. This study analyzes Reddit questions to understand user information needs for OUD recovery and harm reduction.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Computer Science
- Social Sciences
Background:
- Opioid use disorder (OUD) presents significant public health challenges.
- Social media platforms host online communities for individuals seeking OUD recovery and support.
- Information shared in these communities may lack clinical verification.
Purpose of the Study:
- To analyze natural language questions asked within OUD-related discourse on Reddit.
- To categorize OUD-related questions to understand user information-seeking behaviors.
- To identify key areas of inquiry for developing targeted interventions.
Main Methods:
- Utilized transformer-based question detection models.
- Applied hierarchical clustering across 19 subreddits.
- Analyzed user-generated questions from 2018-2021.
Main Results:
- Identified six coarse-grained and 69 fine-grained categories of OUD questions.
- Uncovered ten primary areas of information seeking, including drug sales, treatment, side effects, withdrawal, and pain management.
- Revealed specific user needs for information on drug testing and lifestyle adjustments during recovery.
Conclusions:
- Understanding user-generated questions on Reddit provides unobtrusive insights into OUD recovery needs.
- Findings can inform the development of technological interventions and harm reduction strategies.
- Addressing identified information gaps can improve support for individuals with OUD.
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