IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v390y2026ics0277953625012201.html

Phenotypes of stigma expressed by people who use drugs on Reddit

Author

Listed:
  • Bouzoubaa, Layla
  • Aghakhani, Elham
  • Rezapour, Rezvaneh

Abstract

Despite record-high overdose deaths in the U.S., most individuals meeting criteria for substance use disorder remain outside formal treatment systems. Stigma is a major contributor to this treatment gap yet remains difficult to study among people who use drugs (PWUD) who are not engaged in clinical care. Social media platforms like Reddit offer a valuable window into the lived experiences of stigma of this population through naturally occurring discourse. This study develops a comprehensive framework for identifying stigma expressions in social media discourse, identifies distinct patterns using computational methods, and examines how these patterns relate to established stigma theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Bouzoubaa, Layla & Aghakhani, Elham & Rezapour, Rezvaneh, 2026. "Phenotypes of stigma expressed by people who use drugs on Reddit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 390(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:390:y:2026:i:c:s0277953625012201
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118889
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625012201
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118889?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pleasants, Elizabeth & Parham, Lindsay & Weidert, Karen & Anderson, Emma & Dolgins, Eliza & Prata, Ndola & Upadhyay, Ushma D. & Marshall, Cassondra, 2024. "Waiting to start abortion: A qualitative exploration of narratives of waiting shared in a Reddit community for abortion post-Dobbs leak in 2022," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 349(C).
    2. Lanthier, Stephanie & Mason, Robin & Logie, Carmen H. & Myers, Ted & Du Mont, Janice, 2023. "“Coming out of the closet about sexual assault”: Intersectional sexual assault stigma and (non) disclosure to formal support providers among survivors using Reddit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 328(C).
    3. Danny Valdez & Megan S Patterson, 2022. "Computational analyses identify addiction help-seeking behaviors on the social networking website Reddit: Insights into online social interactions and addiction support communities," PLOS Digital Health, Public Library of Science, vol. 1(11), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Terplan, M. & Longinaker, N. & Appel, L., 2015. "Women-centered drug treatment services and need in the United States, 2002-2009," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 105(11), pages 50-54.
    5. Yang, Lawrence Hsin & Kleinman, Arthur & Link, Bruce G. & Phelan, Jo C. & Lee, Sing & Good, Byron, 2007. "Culture and stigma: Adding moral experience to stigma theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 1524-1535, April.
    6. Livingston, James D. & Boyd, Jennifer E., 2010. "Correlates and consequences of internalized stigma for people living with mental illness: A systematic review and meta-analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(12), pages 2150-2161, December.
    7. Hatzenbuehler, M.L. & Phelan, J.C. & Link, B.G., 2013. "Stigma as a fundamental cause of population health inequalities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 103(5), pages 813-821.
    8. Kelly, J.A. & St Lawrence, J.S. & Smith, S. & Hood, H.V. & Cook, D.J., 1987. "Stigmatization of AIDS patients by physicians," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 77(7), pages 789-791.
    9. Eschliman, Evan L. & Choe, Karen & DeLucia, Alexandra & Addison, Elizabeth & Jackson, Valerie W. & Murray, Sarah M. & German, Danielle & Genberg, Becky L. & Kaufman, Michelle R., 2024. "First-hand accounts of structural stigma toward people who use opioids on Reddit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 347(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rumbidzai Nzwenge & L. Chichevo, 2025. "Psycho Social Determinants of Relapse Among Patients Diagonised with Substance Use Disorder at Parirenyatwa Psychiatric Unit Annexe," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 9(7), pages 75-118, July.
    2. Jacobs, Susan & Quinn, Joseph, 2022. "Cultural reproduction of mental illness stigma and stereotypes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. James Livingston & Nimesh Patel & Stephanie Bryson & Peter Hoong & Rodrick Lal & Marina Morrow & Sepali Guruge, 2018. "Stigma associated with mental illness among Asian men in Vancouver, Canada," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 64(7), pages 679-689, November.
    4. Xu-Hong Li & Tian-Ming Zhang & Yuen Yum Yau & Yi-Zhou Wang & Yin-Ling Irene Wong & Lawrence Yang & Xiao-li Tian & Cecilia Lai-Wan Chan & Mao-Sheng Ran, 2021. "Peer-to-peer contact, social support and self-stigma among people with severe mental illness in Hong Kong," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(6), pages 622-631, September.
    5. Timmermans, Stefan & Tietbohl, Caroline, 2018. "Fifty years of sociological leadership at Social Science and Medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 209-215.
    6. Gaddis, S. Michael & Ramirez, Daniel & Hernandez, Erik L., 2018. "Contextualizing public stigma: Endorsed mental health treatment stigma on college and university campuses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 183-191.
    7. Clair, Matthew & Daniel, Caitlin & Lamont, Michèle, 2016. "Destigmatization and health: Cultural constructions and the long-term reduction of stigma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 223-232.
    8. Adalberto Campo-Arias & Guillermo A Ceballos-Ospino & Edwin Herazo, 2020. "Barriers to access to mental health services among Colombia outpatients," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 66(6), pages 600-606, September.
    9. Mejia-Lancheros, Cilia & Lachaud, James & Woodhall-Melnik, Julia & O'Campo, Patricia & Hwang, Stephen W. & Stergiopoulos, Vicky, 2021. "Longitudinal interrelationships of mental health discrimination and stigma with housing and well-being outcomes in adults with mental illness and recent experience of homelessness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 268(C).
    10. Hunter, Bronwyn A. & Mohatt, Nathaniel Vincent & Prince, Dana M. & Thompson, Azure B. & Matlin, Samantha L. & Tebes, Jacob Kraemer, 2017. "Socio-psychological mediators of the relationship between behavioral health stigma and psychiatric symptoms," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 177-183.
    11. Koschorke, Mirja & Padmavati, R. & Kumar, Shuba & Cohen, Alex & Weiss, Helen A. & Chatterjee, Sudipto & Pereira, Jesina & Naik, Smita & John, Sujit & Dabholkar, Hamid & Balaji, Madhumitha & Chavan, An, 2014. "Experiences of stigma and discrimination of people with schizophrenia in India," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 149-159.
    12. Labbé, Fabienne & Pelletier, Catherine & Bettinger, Julie A. & Curran, Janet & Graham, Janice E. & Greyson, Devon & MacDonald, Noni E. & Meyer, Samantha B. & Steenbeek, Audrey & Xu, Weiai & Dubé, Ève, 2022. "Stigma and blame related to COVID-19 pandemic: A case-study of editorial cartoons in Canada," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 296(C).
    13. Cort, David A. & Tu, Hsin Fei, 2018. "Safety in stigmatizing? Instrumental stigma beliefs and protective sexual behavior in Sub-Saharan Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 144-152.
    14. Trani, Jean-Francois & Ballard, Ellis & Peña, Juan B., 2016. "Stigma of persons with disabilities in Afghanistan: Examining the pathways from stereotyping to mental distress," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 258-265.
    15. Easter, Michele M., 2012. "“Not all my fault”: Genetics, stigma, and personal responsibility for women with eating disorders," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(8), pages 1408-1416.
    16. Gavan, Luana & Hartog, Kim & Koppenol-Gonzalez, Gabriela V. & Gronholm, Petra C. & Feddes, Allard R. & Kohrt, Brandon A. & Jordans, Mark J.D. & Peters, Ruth M.H., 2022. "Assessing stigma in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review of scales used with children and adolescents," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 307(C).
    17. Brewis, Alexandra A., 2014. "Stigma and the perpetuation of obesity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 152-158.
    18. Robert J. Cramer & Jennifer Langhinrichsen-Rohling & Andrea R. Kaniuka & Corrine N. Wilsey & Annelise Mennicke & Susan Wright & Erika Montanaro & Jessamyn Bowling & Kristin E. Heron, 2020. "Preferences in Information Processing, Marginalized Identity, and Non-Monogamy: Understanding Factors in Suicide-Related Behavior among Members of the Alternative Sexuality Community," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-17, May.
    19. Song, Jieun & Mailick, Marsha R. & Greenberg, Jan S., 2018. "Health of parents of individuals with developmental disorders or mental health problems: Impacts of stigma," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 152-158.
    20. Jong Won Min, 2019. "The Influence of Stigma and Views on Mental Health Treatment Effectiveness on Service Use by Age and Ethnicity: Evidence From the CDC BRFSS 2007, 2009, and 2012," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(3), pages 21582440198, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:390:y:2026:i:c:s0277953625012201. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.