Adverse Health Effects of Kratom: An Analysis of Social Media Data

Abstract

This study investigates the adverse healthcare effects associated with the use of kratom. Using machine learning techniques, we analyzed a total of 36,516 users’ posts related to kratom. The results and analysis showed that social media could help identify important insights related to the use of kratom. The sentiment and emotion analyses showed that the kratom experience was negative and largely associated with anger, fear, disgust, and sadness. The results from topic modeling showed that kratom is associated with a number of healthcare issues such as rashes and itching, urination, constipation, loss of appetite/weight, dry mouth, seizures, nausea, heartburn, dehydration, hot flashes, and loss of libido. The results indicated that 26% of users’ posts discussed multiple kratom side effects. Also, results showed the prevalence and dominance of loss of libido followed by heartburn, dry mouth, dehydration, and constipation.