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Journal of Psychology and Cognition | Volume 4
May 13-14, 2019 | Prague, Czech Republic
Addiction Research and Therapy
2nd International Conference on
J Psychol Cognition, Volume 4
Digital media provide increased opportunities for both
health care and social transmission of risky products
such as drugs. Psychoactive substances are continuously and
increasingly appearing on the international drug market.
Global Internet forums are a publicly available reality where
users anonymously discuss and share information about
drugs of abuse. Regardless of the degree of validity, publicly
available content on the Internet is an undeniable reality,
which remains the major source of information for the
public regarding drug-related concerns. At the same time,
the Internet has been identified as a key tool for facilitating
use, providing direct access to supply and information.
Internet searches, for example through Google, are used to
access information. These searches provide data streams
which can then be analysed through online services such as
Google Trends (GT). GT is a free, open access online portal
which allows users to analyse part of 3.5 billion daily Google
searches. This internet tool provides data on geographical and
temporal patterns in user-specified search terms. UsingGT, we
found a similar curve pattern of the relative annual proportion
of "drug addiction" and "opiate" queries. Furthermore, a high
correlation was found between the query "drug addiction"
and "physical abuse" or "physiological effects", r=0.8886 and
r=0.8882, respectively. The power of analysed geographical
and temporal trends will be also discussed. Taken together,
these findings demonstrate the value of GT analyses as a tool
complementing traditional sources and providing actionable
intelligence to both law enforcement authorities and policy-
makers.
Speaker Biography
Jacob Barg graduated from the Kaplan Medical Center. He completed his
Ph.D. at the Weizmann Institute of Science in 1989. He performed a two-
year postdoctoral research in the department of Biochemistry at St. Louis
University. Following that, he joined the department of Biochemistry as an
assistant research professor and then Head of Research and Development
at Wolfson Medical Center. He joined the Ashkelon Academic College,
department of Criminology to continue his contribution for the scientific
welfare. He is a member of Israeli Olympic Committee for the Prevention
of Sports Doping & also Presiding Judge of the Israeli National Committee
and the Israeli Olympic Committee for the Prevention of Sports Doping.
e:
Jacob Barg
Ashkelon Academic College, Israel
Global trends of Drug Addiction as reflected in the Internet