JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Chronic pain, an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience lasting over six months, affects a large proportion of the global population and significantly impacts health and quality of life. Certain diseases cause chronic pain, resulting in a social and medical misunderstanding that intensity the patient’s emotional suffering. In recent years, the social media platform Twitter, now called “X,” has become a valuable resource for research and discussion on chronic pain, providing an accessible environment for communication and information exchange.

Objective:

To analyze content on Twitter related to fibromyalgia, headache, paraplegia, neuropathy, and multiple sclerosis, as well as characterize the profile of users involved in these conversations, identify prevalent topics, measure public perception, evaluate treatment efficacy, and detect discussions related to the most frequent non-medical issues.

Methods:

72,874 tweets in English and Spanish containing pre-specified keywords were collected between 2018 and 2022. A manual review was conducted on 2,500 tweets, and the larger subset was classified by machine learning methods. Subsequently, tweets related to chronic pain conditions were analyzed to examine their medical and non-medical content, types of X users, the origin of the disease, and the efficacy of treatments.

Results:

Of the total tweets collected, 55,451 (76,1%) were classifiable. The most active users were healthcare professionals and institutions. The primary perceived etiology was pharmacological, and higher treatment efficacy was noted in neuropathy, paraplegia, and multiple sclerosis. Regarding non-medical content, there were more tweets related to the definition and understanding of the disease.

Conclusions:

Social media platforms, such as X, are playing a crucial role in the dissemination of information on chronic pain. Discussions largely focus on the available treatments and the need to enhance public education, utilizing these platforms to correct misconceptions and provide better support to patients.