Partisan politics and the opioid epidemic: A social media analysis
The opioid epidemic has had devastating effects in red states and blue states alike, making it a prime target for bipartisan action. But both federal and state policy have been characterized by sharp partisan differences in response to rising rates of opioid-related overdose deaths. In a study recently published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Daniel C. Stokes and Anish K. Agarwal sought to understand how partisanship might affect legislative progress on this seemingly bipartisan issue by analyzing the content of state legislators’ opioid-related social media posts over time.
A comparison of most frequently used words in Democrats’ and Republicans’ opioid-related social media posts. (Image: Stokes et al., Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2021)
Using natural language processing tools, the team analyzed more than 40,000 state legislators’ opioid-related posts from 2014-19 (primarily to Facebook and Twitter), and tracked partisan differences in attention to key topics over time. The researchers found that while the volume of Democrats’ and Republicans’ opioid-related posts were equally correlated with state overdose death rates, the content of posts increasingly diverged over the study period.
Much of the growing gap in state legislators’ opioid-related social media content could be attributed to unequal attention to three key topics: pharmaceutical company accountability, opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment, and manufacture and trade of illegal drugs. Democrats’ posts increasingly spoke to financial penalties for the pharmaceutical companies responsible for manufacturing and advertising commonly prescribed opioids; where these funds would be directed was often unclear. Democrats were also increasingly likely to post about OUD treatment and recovery. Republicans’ posts, on the other hand, increasingly spoke to curbing the illegal drug trade, particularly across international borders.
This story is by Daniel C. Stokes and Anish K. Agarwal. Read more at Penn LDI.
Novel plant-based approach to a better, cheaper GLP-1 delivery system
Research led by Penn Dental’s Henry Daniell investigates the use of a lettuce-based, plant-encapsulated delivery platform as a new oral delivery of two GLP-1 drugs previously approved by the FDA in injectable form.
No brain, no gain: Neuronal activity enhances benefits of exercise
Research led by Penn neuroscientist J. Nicholas Betley and collaborators finds that hypothalamic neurons are essential for translating physical exertion into endurance, potentially opening the door to exercise-mimicking therapies.
In honor of Valentine's Day, and as a way of fostering community in her Shakespeare in Love course, Becky Friedman took her students to the University Club for lunch one class period. They talked about the movie "Shakespeare in Love," as part of a broader conversation on how Shakespeare's works are adapted.
In Becky Friedman’s English course Shakespeare in Love, undergraduate students analyze language, genre, and adaptation in the Bard’s plays through the lens of love.
Beating the heat: Designing cooling for bodies in motion
Dorit Aviv, director of Weitzman’s Thermal Architecture Lab, studies how humans, technology, and design intersect, paving the way for the development of novel approaches to cooling people efficiently.
