Understanding Sarcoidosis Using Large Language Models and Social Media Data

TL;DR

This study leverages large language models to analyze social media discussions on Reddit, providing new insights into sarcoidosis symptoms, treatments, patient subgroups, and mental health impacts, thereby aiding personalized care strategies.

Contribution

First application of LLMs to analyze social media data for sarcoidosis, revealing symptom patterns, treatment effectiveness, patient subgroups, and mental health effects.

Findings

Identified prevalent symptoms like fatigue and shortness of breath.

Discovered three distinct patient phenotypes with unique profiles.

Revealed mental health impacts post-diagnosis, especially in women and young patients.

Abstract

Sarcoidosis is a rare inflammatory disease characterized by the formation of granulomas in various organs. The disease presents diagnostic and treatment challenges due to its diverse manifestations and unpredictable nature. In this study, we employed a Large Language Model (LLM) to analyze sarcoidosis-related discussions on the social media platform Reddit. Our findings underscore the efficacy of LLMs in accurately identifying sarcoidosis-related content. We discovered a wide array of symptoms reported by patients, with fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, and shortness of breath as the most prevalent. Prednisone was the most prescribed medication, while infliximab showed the highest effectiveness in improving prognoses. Notably, our analysis revealed disparities in prognosis based on age and gender, with women and younger patients experiencing good and polarized outcomes, respectively. Furthermore, unsupervised clustering identified three distinct patient subgroups (phenotypes) with unique symptom profiles, prognostic outcomes, and demographic distributions. Finally, sentiment analysis revealed a moderate negative impact on patients' mental health post-diagnosis, particularly among women and younger individuals. Our study represents the first application of LLMs to understand sarcoidosis through social media data. It contributes to understanding the disease by providing data-driven insights into its manifestations, treatments, prognoses, and impact on patients' lives. Our findings have direct implications for improving personalized treatment strategies and enhancing the quality of care for individuals living with sarcoidosis.