{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,3]],"date-time":"2026-03-03T19:46:08Z","timestamp":1772567168871,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,2,12]],"date-time":"2018-02-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1518393600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,2,12]],"date-time":"2018-02-12T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1518393600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["npj Digital Med"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>In recent years, social media websites have been suggested as a novel, vast source of data which may be useful for deriving drug safety information. Despite this, there are few published reports of drug safety profiles derived in this way. The aims of this study were to detect and quantify glucocorticoid-related adverse events using a computerised system for automated detection of suspected adverse drug reactions (ADR) from narrative text in Twitter, and to compare the frequency of specific ADR mentions within Twitter to the frequency and patterns of spontaneous ADR reporting to a national drug regulatory body. Of 159,297 tweets mentioning either prednisolone or prednisone between 1st October 2012 and 30th June 2015, 20,206 tweets were deemed to contain information resembling an ADR. The top AE MedDRA\u00ae Preferred Terms were \u2018insomnia\u2019 and \u2018weight increased\u2019, both recognised non-serious but common side effects. These were proportionally over-reported in Twitter when compared to spontaneous reports in the UK regulator\u2019s ADR reporting scheme. Serious glucocorticoid related AEs were reported less frequently. Pharmacovigilance using Twitter data has the potential to be a valuable, supplementary source of drug safety information. In particular, it can illustrate which drug side effects patients discuss most commonly, potentially because of important impacts on quality of life. This information could help clinicians to inform patients about frequent and relevant non-serious side effects as well as more serious side effects.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1038\/s41746-017-0007-z","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2017,12,15]],"date-time":"2017-12-15T15:52:01Z","timestamp":1513353121000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":25,"title":["Frequent discussion of insomnia and weight gain with glucocorticoid therapy: an analysis of Twitter posts"],"prefix":"10.1038","volume":"1","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5330-1438","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rikesh","family":"Patel","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8574-5439","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maksim","family":"Belousov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Meghna","family":"Jani","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4098-605X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nabarun","family":"Dasgupta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Carly","family":"Winokur","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Goran","family":"Nenadic","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"William G.","family":"Dixon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,2,12]]},"reference":[{"key":"7_CR1","first-page":"105","volume":"93","author":"TP van Staa","year":"2000","unstructured":"van Staa T. P. et al. Use of oral corticosteroids in the United Kingdom. Qjm-Mon. J. Assoc. Phys. 93, 105\u2013111 (2000).","journal-title":"Qjm-Mon. J. Assoc. Phys."},{"key":"7_CR2","first-page":"S5","volume":"29","author":"TG Benedek","year":"2011","unstructured":"Benedek, T. G. History of the development of corticosteroid therapy. Clin. Exp. Rheumatol. 29, S5\u2013S12 (2011).","journal-title":"Clin. Exp. Rheumatol."},{"key":"7_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"23","DOI":"10.1016\/S0163-7258(02)00297-8","volume":"96","author":"H Schacke","year":"2002","unstructured":"Schacke, H., Docke, W. D. & Asadullah, K. Mechanisms involved in the side effects of glucocorticoids. Pharmacol. Ther. 96, 23\u201343 (2002).","journal-title":"Pharmacol. Ther."},{"key":"7_CR4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"van der Goes M. C., Jacobs J. W., & Bijlsma J. W. The value of glucocorticoid co-therapy in different rheumatic diseases\u2014positive and adverse effects. Arthritis. Res. Ther. 16, (2014).","DOI":"10.1186\/ar4686"},{"key":"7_CR5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cooper V. et al. Patient-reported side effects, concerns and adherence to corticosteroid treatment for asthma, and comparison with physician estimates of side-effect prevalence: a UK-wide, cross-sectional study. NPJ Prim. Care Resp. M. 25, Article 15026 (2015).","DOI":"10.1038\/npjpcrm.2015.26"},{"key":"7_CR6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1761","DOI":"10.1136\/annrheumdis-2012-202021","volume":"71","author":"WG Dixon","year":"2012","unstructured":"Dixon, W. G. & Bansback, N. Understanding the side effects of glucocorticoid therapy: shining a light on a drug everyone thinks they know. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 71, 1761\u20131764 (2012).","journal-title":"Ann. Rheum. Dis."},{"key":"7_CR7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e42","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pmed.0020042","volume":"2","author":"A Herxheimer","year":"2005","unstructured":"Herxheimer, A. Communicating with patients about harms and risks. PLoS Med. 2, e42 (2005).","journal-title":"PLoS Med."},{"key":"7_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1015","DOI":"10.1136\/ard.2009.114579","volume":"69","author":"MC van der Goes","year":"2010","unstructured":"van der Goes, M. C. et al. Patient and rheumatologist perspectives on glucocorticoids: an exercise to improve the implementation of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) recommendations on the management of systemic glucocorticoid therapy in rheumatic diseases. Ann. Rheum. Dis. 69, 1015\u20131021 (2010).","journal-title":"Ann. Rheum. Dis."},{"key":"7_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"791","DOI":"10.1002\/acr.20160","volume":"62","author":"Y Nestoriuc","year":"2010","unstructured":"Nestoriuc, Y., Orav, E. J., Liang, M. H., Horne, R. & Barsky, A. J. Prediction of nonspecific side effects in rheumatoid arthritis patients by beliefs about medicines. Arthrit. Care Res. 62, 791\u2013799 (2010).","journal-title":"Arthrit. Care Res."},{"key":"7_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"520","DOI":"10.1080\/09540120802301824","volume":"21","author":"V Cooper","year":"2009","unstructured":"Cooper, V., Gellaitry, G., Hankins, M., Fisher, M. & Horne, R. The influence of symptom experiences and attributions on adherence to highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART): a six-month prospective, follow-up study. AIDS Care 21, 520\u2013528 (2009).","journal-title":"AIDS Care"},{"key":"7_CR11","unstructured":"PewInternet. PewInternet Research\u2014Health Online 2013. http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/files\/old-media\/Files\/Reports\/PIP_HealthOnline.pdf."},{"key":"7_CR12","unstructured":"Facebook. Facebook Q3 2015 results investor.fb.com2015. http:\/\/files.shareholder.com\/downloads\/AMDA-NJ5DZ\/988896862x0x859098\/DC6C9112-AFF6-4E76-9168-7DBA0D5FFDAB\/FB_Q3_15_Earnings_Slides_FINAL.pdf."},{"key":"7_CR13","unstructured":"Twitter. Twitter Usage\/Comapny Facts 2015. https:\/\/about.twitter.com\/company."},{"key":"7_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Powell G. E. et al. Social media listening for routine post-marketing safety surveillance. Drug. Saf. 39, 443\u2013454 (2016).","DOI":"10.1007\/s40264-015-0385-6"},{"key":"7_CR15","unstructured":"Agency MaHpR. MHRA Yellow Card Scheme. https:\/\/yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk\/."},{"key":"7_CR16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"385","DOI":"10.2165\/00002018-200629050-00003","volume":"29","author":"L Hazell","year":"2006","unstructured":"Hazell, L. & Shakir, S. A. W. Under-reporting of adverse drug reactions\u2014a systematic review. Drug Saf. 29, 385\u2013396 (2006).","journal-title":"Drug Saf."},{"key":"7_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Roehr, B. US hospital incident reporting systems do not capture most adverse events. Brit. Med. J. 344, Article e386 (2012).","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.e386"},{"key":"7_CR18","unstructured":"MedDRA\u2014The History of 2016. http:\/\/www.meddra.org\/about-meddra\/history."},{"key":"7_CR19","unstructured":"MSSO M. MedDRA Hierarchy 2016. Accessed 09 Feb 2016. http:\/\/www.meddra.org\/how-to-use\/basics\/hierarchy."},{"key":"7_CR20","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1247","DOI":"10.1093\/rheumatology\/keg355","volume":"42","author":"E Morrison","year":"2003","unstructured":"Morrison, E., Crosbie, D. & Capell, H. A. Attitude of rheumatoid arthritis patients to treatment with oral corticosteroids. Rheumatology 42, 1247\u20131250 (2003).","journal-title":"Rheumatology"},{"key":"7_CR21","unstructured":"(eMC) eMC. Prednisolone Tablet PiL 2013. https:\/\/www.medicines.org.uk\/emc\/medicine\/18752."},{"key":"7_CR22","first-page":"421","volume":"68","author":"J Zhao","year":"2013","unstructured":"Zhao, J., Dai, Y. H., Xi, Q. S. & Yu, S. Y. A clinical study on insomnia in patients with cancer during chemotherapy containing high-dose glucocorticoids. Pharmazie 68, 421\u2013427 (2013).","journal-title":"Pharmazie"},{"key":"7_CR23","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2119","DOI":"10.1007\/s10067-015-2953-7","volume":"34","author":"C Morin","year":"2015","unstructured":"Morin, C. & Fardet, L. Systemic glucocorticoid therapy: risk factors for reported adverse events and beliefs about the drug. A cross-sectional online survey of 820 patients. Clin. Rheumatol. 34, 2119\u20132126 (2015).","journal-title":"Clin. Rheumatol."},{"key":"7_CR24","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"S66","DOI":"10.4103\/0976-500X.120955","volume":"4","author":"C Palleria","year":"2013","unstructured":"Palleria, C. et al Limitations and obstacles of the spontaneous adverse drugs reactions reporting: two \u201cchallenging\u201d case reports. J. Pharmacol. Pharmacother. 4, S66\u2013S72 (2013).","journal-title":"J. Pharmacol. Pharmacother."},{"key":"7_CR25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Costello, R., Patel, R., Humphreys, J., McBeth, J. & Dixon W.G. Patient perceptions of glucocorticoid side effects: a cross-sectional survey of users in an online health community. BMJ Open. 7, e014603 (2017).","DOI":"10.1136\/bmjopen-2016-014603"},{"key":"7_CR26","unstructured":"PewInternet. PewInternet Demographics of Social Media Users 2015. http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/2015\/08\/19\/the-demographics-of-social-media-users\/."},{"key":"7_CR27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"671","DOI":"10.1093\/jamia\/ocu041","volume":"22","author":"A Nikfarjam","year":"2015","unstructured":"Nikfarjam, A., Sarker, A., O\u2019Connor, K., Ginn, R. & Gonzalez, G. Pharmacovigilance from social media: mining adverse drug reaction mentions using sequence labeling with word embedding cluster features. J. Am. Med. Inform. Assn. 22, 671\u2013681 (2015).","journal-title":"J. Am. Med. Inform. Assn"},{"key":"7_CR28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"202","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jbi.2015.02.004","volume":"54","author":"A Sarker","year":"2015","unstructured":"Sarker, A. et al. Utilizing social media data for pharmacovigilance: a review. J. Biomed. Inform. 54, 202\u2013212 (2015).","journal-title":"J. Biomed. Inform."},{"key":"7_CR29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"555","DOI":"10.1007\/s40264-014-0172-9","volume":"37","author":"CC Freifeld","year":"2014","unstructured":"Freifeld, C. C. et al. Digital drug safety surveillance: monitoring pharmaceutical products in twitter Vol 37, p 343, 2014). Drug Saf. 37, 555 (2014).","journal-title":"Drug Saf."},{"key":"7_CR30","unstructured":"Freifeld C. C. Digital Pharmacovigilance: The MedWatcher System for Monitoring Adverse Events through Automated Processing of Internet Social media and Crowdsourcing: Boston University; 2014."}],"updated-by":[{"DOI":"10.1038\/s41746-018-0037-1","type":"correction","label":"Correction","source":"publisher","updated":{"date-parts":[[2018,7,9]],"date-time":"2018-07-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1531094400000}}],"container-title":["npj Digital Medicine"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41746-017-0007-z","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41746-017-0007-z.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41746-017-0007-z.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,21]],"date-time":"2022-12-21T12:34:44Z","timestamp":1671626084000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41746-017-0007-z"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2018,2,12]]},"references-count":30,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,12]]}},"alternative-id":["7"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41746-017-0007-z","relation":{"correction":[{"id-type":"doi","id":"10.1038\/s41746-018-0037-1","asserted-by":"object"}]},"ISSN":["2398-6352"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2398-6352","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2018,2,12]]},"assertion":[{"value":"29 January 2017","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"10 March 2017","order":2,"name":"revised","label":"Revised","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"20 March 2017","order":3,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"12 February 2018","order":4,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"9 July 2018","order":5,"name":"change_date","label":"Change Date","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"Correction","order":6,"name":"change_type","label":"Change Type","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"The original version of the published Article contained an error in the spelling of the fifth Author\u2019s name. \u201cCarly Winakor\u201d has been changed to \u201cCarly Winokur\u201d. This has been corrected in the HTML and PDF version of the Article.","order":7,"name":"change_details","label":"Change Details","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"N.D. and C.W. are salaried employees of Epidemico Inc., a private company based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, who developed the NLP software used in the analysis of this paper and who also provided our researchers at the University of Manchester with the bank of tweets used for analysis. The rest of the authors declare no competing financial interests.","order":1,"name":"Ethics","group":{"name":"EthicsHeading","label":"Competing interests"}}],"article-number":"20177"}}