Life-Changing – Online Forums Can Help People in Remission From Opioid Use Disorder

Through active participation in online forums, people with opioid use disorder may experience social benefits and wellness that have a profoundly positive impact on their lives.

Participating in online forums, particularly those that are general in nature and unrelated to drug and addiction themes, might help patients develop invaluable "social capital" that dramatically reduces the risk that they would experience a use episode while in remission.

On the other hand, if someone spends too much time on forums for therapy and support, their chance of reporting a use episode while in remission may rise.

These recent findings from a University of Exeter study may have a big influence on public health, especially for those who are less able or willing to take part in traditional on-site recovery and rehabilitation programs.

The study, which was released in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, highlights the continuous advantages that online forums may offer years into a person's road to remission.

According to Dr. Miriam Koschate-Reis, the study's principal investigator and an associate professor of computational social psychology in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, "Opioid addiction is one of the most important public health crises of our day."

"The human cost is profound, whether it be addiction to opiates like heroin, illicitly made synthetic opioids like fentanyl, or prescribed medicines like painkillers. The availability of therapy and recovery support groups is a crucial first step in resolving this problem, but there may be obstacles in the way of using these services, such as a lack of financing, stigma, and individual circumstances. This study emphasizes the importance of online communities, including forums on well-known websites like Reddit. The outcomes imply that they might offer a lifeline to those with opioid use disorder who are in remission.

The research team chose the well-known news and conversation website Reddit as its foundation and started by concentrating on one of its devoted communities, or subreddits, named "OpiatesRecovery." This site, which provides peer support and recovery information, has been utilized by more than 31,000 users since 2012. Many of them frequently post updates on their state of remission, including how long it has been since they last took opioids.

After a lengthy data cleaning process, a sample of 457 people was established, of which 48% had disclosed using opioids or other drugs during remission while participating in the forum and 52% had not. The researchers were able to follow actions across the entire Reddit site by analyzing unique and anonymous user IDs, which allowed them to create a picture of which other types of Reddit subforums the participants were engaging with.

From this, they discovered more than 1,200 subreddits, which they divided into those devoted to recovery support, those linked to substance use, and those unrelated to either. Then, they noted how many posts and comments each participant had made from 2012 to 2019 in total.

Accoding to Dr. Elahe Naserianhanzaei, a co-researcher in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, "our findings showed that the more online, non-drug-related communities an individual recovering from opioid use disorder became a part of, the lower the likelihood of a use episode over time."

In fact, this may result in a 5% decrease for each subforum. And even after taking into account membership in recovery and drug use groups, this effect maintained. This is consistent with the idea that social groups foster resilience and provide health advantages.

Additional noteworthy trends that might call for more study were also identified by the data. The first was that, while there were advantages to participating in recovery-focused forums, there was a link between people who narrowed their attention to these sites and those who were more likely to use opioids while in remission.

Second, involvement in substance use forums was not linked to an increased likelihood of an opioid use episode, indicating that online interactions with those who discuss substance use may not always be hazardous to those who are in remission.

Additionally, the researchers discovered a possible link between an increase in posting activity in forums for recovery and general interest and the probability of a use episode during remission, something the authors suggest needs additional study.

Dr. Koschate-Reis continued, "Our longitudinal study of online behavior over six years gives us an insight into a considerably longer time of rehabilitation than has previously been focused upon.

"It gives the first indicator that a person's journey toward remission needs to continue beyond the stage where they shift toward group engagement that is non-drug related and build memberships in recovery support groups. These findings suggest that online communities can support people in making that adjustment.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council provided funding for the study.

By UNIVERSITY OF EXETER