IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v347y2024ics0277953624001461.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the discourses around microdosing psychedelics within the r/microdosing online community

Author

Listed:
  • Pop, Ioana Andreea
  • Gielens, Erwin
  • Kottmann, Hannah
  • Achterberg, Peter

Abstract

In the present contribution, we examine the practice of microdosing psychedelics (microdosing) through textual analysis of the content produced by a dedicated online community, the r/microdosing subreddit. We collected a comprehensive dataset of publicly available submissions from this community and used structural topic modelling to identify and analyse the prevalent topics within the discussions. Through our analysis, we identified 16 distinct topics that mapped into clinical, human enhancement, as well as self-medication narratives. Notably, we found that the majority of discussions revolved around "how to" topics, supporting our argument that such online communities serve as essential information hubs, facilitating the dissemination of practical knowledge related to microdosing practices among the general population. The identified impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the prevalence of discussion topics suggests that individuals within the online community may perceive microdosing primarily as a means of self-medication during times of heightened stress and uncertainty. Our findings contribute to the field of health sociology and psychedelic research by shedding light on the sociocultural factors influencing healthcare practices, including the role of online communities in facilitating processes of self-medicalization and self-medication.

Suggested Citation

  • Pop, Ioana Andreea & Gielens, Erwin & Kottmann, Hannah & Achterberg, Peter, 2024. "Exploring the discourses around microdosing psychedelics within the r/microdosing online community," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 347(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:347:y:2024:i:c:s0277953624001461
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116702
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953624001461
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.116702?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:347:y:2024:i:c:s0277953624001461. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.