Emerging Trends of Self-Harm Using Sodium Nitrite in an Online Suicide Community: Observational Study Using Natural Language Processing Analysis

• Published in: JMIR mental health Vol. 11; p. e53730
• Main Authors: Das, Sudeshna, Walker, Drew, Rajwal, Swati, Lakamana, Sahithi, Sumner, Steven A, Mack, Karin A, Kaczkowski, Wojciech, Sarker, Abeed
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Canada JMIR Publications 02.05.2024
• Subjects: Adult; Child & adolescent mental health; Female; Firearms; Humans; Internet; Male; Natural Language Processing; Observational studies; Self destructive behavior; Self-Injurious Behavior - epidemiology; Social Media; Social networks; Sodium Nitrite; Suicide - psychology; Suicide - trends; Suicides & suicide attempts; Teenagers; Trends; Young Adult; United States > US; natural language processing; United States; online suicide community; data mining; mental health; suicide; usage; online forum; accuracy; consumption; machine learning; Sanctioned Suicide; suicidal; sodium nitrite; adolescent; sodium nitrite sources; information; juvenile; surveillance; US; public health; self harm

There is growing concern around the use of sodium nitrite (SN) as an emerging means of suicide, particularly among younger people. Given the limited information on the topic from traditional public health surveillance sources, we studied posts made to an online suicide discussion forum, "Sancti...