Investigating self-reported compensation strategies for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder on Reddit: An analysis of user content from 2012-2023 with a focus on trends during COVID-19 (Preprint)
Authors: Liebrenz Michael , Smith Alexander , Graña Juan , Buadze Anna 
Published: April 2024

BACKGROUND

Across the lifespan, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can cause functional impairments in various domains, with adults often employing compensation strategies to mitigate these deficits. Recently, the social media platform, Reddit, has become a valuable platform for disorder-specific exchanges, particularly in subreddits like r/ADHD.

OBJECTIVE

This investigation explored the visibility and engagement around self-reported compensation strategies in r/ADHD content between 2012-2023, assessing the range of skills and practices evident for symptom management. Specifically, the study aimed to ascertain whether r/ADHD content corresponded with a five-category taxonomy developed in prior research, which identified Social, Organizational, Attentional, Motor, and Psychopharmacological strategies. Relatedly, the methodology sought to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these discussions through longitudinal trends.

METHODS

Using a custom-written code, we extracted a corpus of 134,437 posts and comments from 55,688 r/ADHD users that contained phrases related to ADHD compensation strategies. Subsequently, a two-tiered analysis was applied to evaluate the relevance of this content and label it into distinct groups. This involved a machine learning approach incorporating a large language model with human in the loop for review and classification based on the existing five-category framework. Having excluded content with no discernible techniques and duplicates, this resulted in a dataset grouped by compensation strategies of 78,340 posts and comments from 41,019 r/ADHD users and 739,620 upvotes. Quantitative totals were then visualized by year to capture temporal discourse patterns.

RESULTS

The majority (90.08%) of the 78,340 eligible posts and comments on r/ADHD could be categorized into the five groups (Social, Organizational, Attentional, Motor, and Psychopharmacological). The remaining 9.92% of content (7,772 posts and comments) required two newly-found classifications (Self-Care and Help-Seeking) to reflect the additional types of compensation strategies described in this online community. Longitudinally, there was observable growth in both r/ADHD content and users in the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrating increased online engagement with compensation strategies during this time.

CONCLUSIONS

These results contribute to the wider understanding of ADHD symptom management, suggesting a consistency between perspectives on r/ADHD and existing literature about compensation strategies. Nevertheless, the identification of new strategies also highlights the evolving nature of symptom mitigation and the value of Reddit as an information source. Likewise, growth in r/ADHD dialogues throughout the COVID-19 pandemic signifies an interest in compensation strategies during adaptive and stressful intervals. Online communities could serve as beneficial outreach platforms for expert guidance and psychoeducation to address real-world challenges for individuals with ADHD.