Media Trends for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 800-662-HELP Addiction Treatment Referral Services After a Celebrity Overdose

Abstract

This evaluation of media trends compared searches on social media for key words after a celebrity overdose and a celebrity suicide.

Despite a substantial investment in evidence-based addiction resources, only 10% of US individuals who need treatment for drug addiction receive it.¹ The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) national helpline (800-662-HELP) is the only free, federally managed and endorsed US addiction treatment referral service, helping callers find the best local services that match their needs. We sought to determine awareness of the avialability of this free resource.

Methods

On July 24, 2018, singer Demi Lovato was hospitalized for an overdose that on-the-scene investigators linked to heroin.² Lovato has since recovered. During the week after her overdose (July 24-30, 2018), we assessed public awareness and engagement with 800-662-HELP on Google News (https://news.google.com), Twitter (twitter.com), and Google (https://google.com/trends).³ Given that these analyses were based on public aggregate data, institutional review board approval was not required for this study.

We obtained counts of articles, posts, or searches that mentioned (1) Lovato, (2) opioid or heroin, and (3) 800-662-HELP, including various spellings (eg, 8006624357), from their respective public data feeds with raw Google search volumes estimated using media measurement and analytics from comScore (comscore.com). Furthermore, because internet searchers may not know the SAMHSA helpline number, all searches for opioid or heroin and helpline or help were included in the latter category. We replicated this strategy for the week after Anthony Bourdain’s suicide on June 8, 2018, substituting Bourdain, suicide, and the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (800-273-TALK) where appropriate (content that also mentioned blast, bomber, doors, or squad [eg, suicide squad] was omitted). Raw counts were computed using Python software (version 3.0; Python Software Foundation), and volumes were compared between the 2 searches.

Results

We located 42 500 news stories, 972 500 tweets, and 14.7 million searches referencing Lovato the week after her overdose (Table). Of these, 25 300 news stories, 342 200 tweets, and 1.2 million searches mentioned opioids or heroin. In contrast, 216 news stories, 258 tweets, and 8000 searches referenced 800-662-HELP; the latter volume was consistent with that of the mean 90 days before Lovato’s overdose (7300; 95% CI, 6200-8200).

Table. Engagement With Federally Backed Helplines 1 Week After a Celebrity Overdose and Suicide.

Source	Key Words, No. of Mentions or Searchesa
	Demi Lovato Overdose			Anthony Bourdain Suicide
	Lovato	Opioid or Heroin	800-662-HELPb	Bourdain	Suicidec	800-273-TALKb
Google News	42 500	25 300	216	22 400	120 000	4940
Twitter	972 500	342 200	258	2 205 300	2 117 000	20 900
Google search	14 700 000	1 200 000	8000	18 900 000	3 827 000	29 000

^aCounts reflect weekly volumes for news stories archived on the study sources 1 week after Lovato’s overdose (July 24, 2018) and Bourdain’s suicide (June 8, 2018).

^bRaw Google search volumes were estimated by monitoring queries per 10 million, with the denominator inferred from comScore summaries. Searches for help or helpline were also included to capture those searching for these national hotlines.

^cExcludes matching content that also included blast, bomber, doors, or squad.

In comparison, after Bourdain’s suicide we found 4940 news stories, 20 900 tweets, and 29 000 searches for the National Suicide Lifeline, reflecting 22.9, 81.0, and 3.6 times greater volume. These disparities persist even after factoring in general interest in Bourdain or suicide (eg, Bourdain was cited in fewer news stories [22 400] and suicide was cited in tweets 6.2 times more [2 117 000] than comparative findings after Lovato’s overdose).

Discussion

800-662-HELP appears to be underappreciated in the media and among the public at large. Additional surveillance is needed to clarify our formative findings, because our keyword-based analyses may have omitted some forms of addiction resource promotion, and our contrasted case studies of Lovato and Bourdain may not be indicative of broader patterns outsider these events. Nevertheless, the dearth of engagement with 800-662-HELP we found can help to motivate strategies for health leaders, news makers, and media companies to promote 800-662-HELP.

The World Health Organization created guidelines around suicide news reporting, standardizing the practice of including suicide helpline numbers, which appears to be effective.⁴ Similar guidelines for 800-662-HELP are warranted, such as imploring news reporters to include 800-662-HELP in their stories on addiction.

Social media and internet search companies could themselves promote 800-662-HELP. Bing and Google place suicide hotline numbers as the reserved first result for suicide method searches, such as I want to kill myself. Likewise, social media companies have implemented strategies to reach suicidal users who need help.⁵ Similar efforts could be applied to drug addiction, with industry prioritizing 800-662-HELP within their platforms when their users seek out help.

The managers of 800-662-HELP could use search engine and smartphone-based conversational agent (ie, Siri) optimization to fill existing awareness gaps without relying on media companies themselves.⁶ Moreover, replicating mass media campaigns, such as how Tips From Former Smokers promotes the smoker’s helpline, might also insert 800-662-HELP into the national conversation, thereby engendering broader free media coverage. The result of these changes will mean more of those who need help know of 800-662-HELP, and tragedies, like that besetting Lovato, could have a positive effect on public health.