Dynamics of Emotions and Relations in a Facebook Group of Patients with Hidradenitis Suppurativa

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is an orphan, underdiagnosed and painful disease of the skin that has a considerable negative impact on quality of life and on emotional well-being. As reported by the italian HS patients’ association (Inversa Onlus), this condition brings patients to develop an emotional closure with the consequence that they often don’t talk about their condition with anybody. In this paper we discuss some results obtained by applying automatic emotion detection and social network analysis techniques on the Facebook group of the Inversa Onlus association. In particular, we analyze the patients’ emotional states, as expressed by the post published from 2010 to 2016, and how these emotions are influenced by friendships in the group, during the years.