Novel psychoactive substances: An investigation of temporal trends in social media and electronic health records.
Public health monitoring is commonly undertaken in social media but has never been combined with data analysis from electronic health records. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between the emergence of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) in social media and their appearance in a large mental health database.



Insufficient numbers of mentions of other NPS in case records meant that the study focused on mephedrone. Data were extracted on the number of mephedrone (i) references in the clinical record at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, London, UK, (ii) mentions in Twitter, (iii) related searches in Google and (iv) visits in Wikipedia. The characteristics of current mephedrone users in the clinical record were also established.



Increased activity related to mephedrone searches in Google and visits in Wikipedia preceded a peak in mephedrone-related references in the clinical record followed by a spike in the other 3 data sources in early 2010, when mephedrone was assigned a 'class B' status. Features of current mephedrone users widely matched those from community studies.



Combined analysis of information from social media and data from mental health records may assist public health and clinical surveillance for certain substance-related events of interest. There exists potential for early warning systems for health-care practitioners.
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. Electronic address: anna.kolliakou@kcl.ac.uk.
A
A
Kolliakou
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
M
M
Ball
Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
L
L
Derczynski
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
D
D
Chandran
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
G
G
Gkotsis
National Addiction Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
P
P
Deluca
Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
R
R
Jackson
NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, London, UK.
H
H
Shetty
Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
R
R
Stewart
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002491:Central Nervous System Agents / Q000009:adverse effects*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D057286:Electronic Health Records / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D013287:Illicit Drugs / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D008694:Methamphetamine / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000031:analogs & derivatives*; D061108:Social Media; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D006113:United Kingdom; D055815:Young Adult
D002491:Central Nervous System Agents; D013287:Illicit Drugs; D008694:Methamphetamine; C548233:mephedrone
Electronic health records; Mephedrone; Novel psychoactive substances; Public health monitoring; Social media