Reddit discussions about buprenorphine associated precipitated withdrawal in the era of fentanyl.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Induction of buprenorphine, an evidence-based treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD), has been reported to be difficult for people with heavy use of fentanyl, the most prevalent opioid in many areas of the country. In this population, precipitated opioid withdrawal (POW) may occur even after individuals have completed a period of opioid abstinence prior to induction. Our objective was to study potential associations between fentanyl, buprenorphine induction, and POW, using social media data.

Methods

This is a mixed methods study of data from seven opioid-related forums (subreddits) on Reddit. We retrieved publicly available data from the subreddits via an application programming interface, and applied natural language processing to identify subsets of post

SUBMITTER: Spadaro A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10457147 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature