Related papers: Large-Scale Analysis of Online Questions Related t…
The aim of this paper is to present methods to systematically analyze individual and group behavioral patterns observed in community driven discussion platforms like Reddit where users exchange information and views on various topics of…
Suicide is a prominent issue in society. Unfortunately, many people at risk for suicide do not receive the support required. Barriers to people receiving support include social stigma and lack of access to mental health care. With the…
The growing availability of online support groups has opened up new windows to study mental health through natural language processing (NLP). However, it is hindered by a lack of high-quality, well-validated datasets. Existing studies have…
Users of spoken dialogue systems (SDS) expect high quality interactions across a wide range of diverse topics. However, the implementation of SDS capable of responding to every conceivable user utterance in an informative way is a…
The increase in the prevalence of mental health problems has coincided with a growing popularity of health related social networking sites. Regardless of their therapeutic potential, On-line Support Groups (OSGs) can also have negative…
Many children in foster care experience trauma that is rooted in unstable family relationships. Other members of the foster care system like foster parents and social workers face secondary trauma. Drawing on 10 years of Reddit data, we…
Physicians learn primarily about illicit drugs from clinical overdose cases, limiting their understanding of real-world usage. Meanwhile, drug users share first-hand experiences online, offering insights into dosage and effects of drugs. To…
While much attention has been devoted to the causes of opinion change, little is known about its consequences. Our study sheds a light on the relationship between one user's opinion change episode and subsequent behavioral change on an…
The objective of this study is to understand the online Ask the Doctor services medical advice on internet platforms via AskDoc, a Reddit community that serves as a public AtD platform and study if platforms mirror existing hurdles and…
Generative AI systems are increasingly embedded in everyday life, yet empirical understanding of how psychological risk associated with AI use emerges, is experienced, and is regulated by users remains limited. We present a large-scale…
We present the first large-scale comparative analysis of Truth Social and the most popular conservative Reddit communities, r/Conservative, r/conservatives, and r/Republican. Using topic modeling with FASTopic and LLM-assisted refinement,…
The criminal nature of narcotics complicates the direct assessment of a drug community, while having a good understanding of the type of people drawn or currently using drugs is vital for finding effective intervening strategies. Especially…
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected lives of people from different countries for almost two years. The changes on lifestyles due to the pandemic may cause psychosocial stressors for individuals, and have a potential to lead to mental health…
Mental illness is a global health problem, but access to mental healthcare resources remain poor worldwide. Online peer-to-peer support platforms attempt to alleviate this fundamental gap by enabling those who struggle with mental illness…
Opioid overdose has emerged as a full blown epidemic in the United States. In the last few years, there has been an alarming increase in Opioid related deaths, resulting in the loss of 63,600 lives in 2016 alone. The epidemic which is…
Substance use, substance use disorder, and overdoses related to substance use are major public health problems globally and in the United States. A key aspect of addressing these problems from a public health standpoint is improved…
Given the current state of the world, because of existing situations around the world, millions of people suffering from mental illnesses feel isolated and unable to receive help in person. Psychological studies have shown that our state of…
Low self-esteem and interpersonal needs (i.e., thwarted belongingness (TB) and perceived burdensomeness (PB)) have a major impact on depression and suicide attempts. Individuals seek social connectedness on social media to boost and…
Deep learning models have demonstrated promising results in estimating treatment effects (TEE). However, most of them overlook the variations in treatment outcomes among subgroups with distinct characteristics. This limitation hinders their…
In this study, we analyze texts of Reddit posts written by students of four major Canadian universities. We gauge the emotional tone and uncover prevailing themes and discussions through longitudinal topic modeling of posts textual data.…