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Searching the Internet for Drug‐Related Web Sites: Analysis of Online Available Information on Ecstasy (MDMA)
Author(s) -
Deluca Paolo,
Schifano Fabrizio
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the american journal on addictions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.997
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1521-0391
pISSN - 1055-0496
DOI - 10.1080/10550490701641181
Subject(s) - ecstasy , mdma , harm reduction , the internet , web site , drug , harm , world wide web , internet privacy , web of science , medicine , computer science , psychology , pharmacology , psychiatry , meta analysis , public health , social psychology , nursing
Although the Internet is a growing source of information on MDMA/ecstasy, no studies so far have investigated the level and quality of ecstasy information available to the typical Web user. In the present study, 280 Web sites were identified and analyzed; 50.4% had an anti‐drug approach, 16.2% a harm reduction approach, and 24.8% a pro‐drug approach. MDMA pro‐drug Web sites appeared significantly earlier in the search engines' results list than both anti‐drug and harm reduction Web sites (F (3; 159) = 3.288; p = .022). This study represents the first systematic analysis of information available online on ecstasy. Implications for further research are discussed.