A new study reveals that TikTok's most-viewed ADHD videos often spread inaccurate information, blurring the line between relatable content and real diagnosis—raising red flags among mental health experts.
Study: A double-edged hashtag: Evaluation of #ADHD-related TikTok content and its associations with perceptions of ADHD. Image Credit: PeopleImages.com - Yuri A / Shutterstock.com
A recent PLOS ONE study investigates the psychoeducational quality of TikTok content about attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) based on the perspectives of mental health professionals and young adults.
Social media content on mental health concerns
ADHD is characterized by hyperactivity, inattention, and impulsivity. Current estimates indicate that 3-7% of adults are diagnosed with ADHD throughout the world.
Social media platforms provide easy access to information on mental health conditions like ADHD, depression, and anxiety. Unlike traditional information sources, social media platforms enable individuals with mental health issues to share their experiences with others, which has the potential to reduce stigma and raise awareness of prevalent mental health issues. However, the lack of quality control on social media content increases the risk of misinformation.
TikTok for information on mental health
TikTok is a social media platform that allows users to post content in short video format. Over the past five years, it has become increasingly popular, with over 50 million active daily users spending more than one hour on it every day. In fact, a recent survey revealed that two out of five Americans prefer TikTok over more traditional search engines, including Google, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials, at 64% and 49%, respectively.
TikTok offers an environment where people seek information about mental health while also sharing their experiences and connecting with others with similar conditions. In fact, mental health content, particularly videos about autism and ADHD, are TikTok’s 10 most-viewed health-related hashtags.
Importantly, social media platforms like TikTok are not designed to provide effective psychoeducation to their users. Furthermore, the lack of fact-checking mechanisms for social media content increases the risk of disseminating inaccurate or misleading information. For example, one recent study reported that 41% of the most popular TikTok videos providing psychoeducation about autism were inaccurate, with 32% overgeneralized.
About the study
The current study investigated the authenticity of information available about ADHD on TikTok while also evaluating how TikTok content on ADHD influenced viewers’ perceptions of this mental health condition.
Study 1 assessed the characteristics of popular ADHD content on TikTok, which was designated as Research Question 1 (RQ1), and evaluated whether these data align with clinical diagnostic criteria and treatment recommendations by mental health professionals (RQ2). Study 2 evaluated how young adults with or without self-reported ADHD perceive ADHD-related TikTok content (RQ3), how psychologist rates the content (RQ4), and the impact of this content on user perceptions of ADHD (R5).
At baseline, study participants provided information on their ADHD diagnosis or whether they believed that they were undiagnosed with this condition. The selected participants completed questionnaires about their demographics, diagnostic history, and symptoms. After the initial screening, 224 participants were classified in the “no ADHD” group, 198 into the “ADHD formal diagnosis” group, and 421 in the “self-diagnosis” group.
Each study participant was randomly asked to watch the top and bottom five TikTok videos. Then, the participants were asked to rate the videos based on the global score given by psychologists.
Study participants were also given the choice to watch or avoid videos by psychologist raters from Study 1, which explained why certain videos received higher scores than others. Those who watched the experts’ videos were subsequently asked to rate the TikTok content again and report whether their perception of ADHD changed.
ADHD on TikTok: Separating facts from misinformation
Study participants self-diagnosed with ADHD more frequently watched ADHD-related TikTok content than those without ADHD. This could be attributed to users finding these videos relevant to their lives, or may be reinforced by the TikTok algorithm that learns from the watch history of users.
Many videos that claimed to describe ADHD symptoms were transdiagnostic, and some content reflected normal human experience. This observation indicates that certain TikTok creators focus on the breadth over the specificity of their content to attract a larger audience.
Clinical psychologists reported that the accuracy of information in TikTok videos was low, which similarly reflects previous reports by health professionals considering ADHD-related content on TikTok to be misleading.
In accordance with the psychologist's ratings, young adults provided favorable views on the bottom five TikTok videos than the top five. However, the top five videos were scored higher than the bottom five videos, thus reflecting their critical judgment.
A significant proportion of young adults with ADHD were interested in hearing from mental health professionals. As compared to the ADHD-diagnosed group, individuals self-diagnosed with ADHD were assured that they did not have this condition after watching the psychologist’s explanation videos.
Conclusions
Psychology experts report that most TikTok content is misleading and inaccurate, which likely contributes to a rise in self-diagnosed cases of ADHD. However, individuals with confirmed ADHD diagnoses with limited access to treatment were found to benefit from content where the creator shared their experience.