Detecting Suicide Discussions Among Opioid Substance Users on Instagram
The link between suicide and opioid use is not well known. Some studies suggest that people who misuse opioids are twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts.
To better understand the intersection of suicide ideation and opioid use, this study analyzed posts and comments made on Instagram, a popular social media platform among young adults for sharing thoughts, ideas and behaviors. Combining big data and machine learning approaches, ACCO expert Tim Mackey and his team collected and classified 56,464 Instagram posts and comments using drug-related hashtags, resulting in 1,228 posts. Then, they were filtered for suicide and mental health keywords and hashtags, finding 719 posts comments relating to both suicide and substance abuse.
While Instagram has implemented reporting tools for content relating to both suicide and drug use, both topics remain prevalent on the platform and require further study.
Authors:
Vidya Purusthothaman
Jiawei Li
Tim Mackey