{"id":24337,"date":"2025-03-19T18:31:19","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T19:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=24337"},"modified":"2025-03-19T20:27:05","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T20:27:05","slug":"a-d-h-d-videos-on-tiktok-can-be-misleading-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=24337","title":{"rendered":"A.D.H.D. Videos on TikTok Can Be Misleading, Study Finds"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Even people who have been diagnosed don\u2019t always spot inaccuracies or generalizations about the condition in the social media posts, research suggests.<\/p>\n

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On TikTok, misinformation about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can be tricky to spot, according to a new study.<\/p>\n

The study<\/a>, published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, found that fewer than 50 percent of the claims made in some of the most popular A.D.H.D. videos on TikTok offered information that matched diagnostic criteria or professional treatment recommendations for the disorder. And, the researchers found, even study participants who had already been diagnosed with A.D.H.D. had trouble discerning which information was most reliable.<\/p>\n

About half of the TikTok creators included in the study were using the platform to sell products, such as fidget spinners, or services like coaching. None of them were licensed mental health professionals.<\/p>\n

The lack of nuance is concerning, said Vasileia Karasavva, a Ph.D. student in c<\/em>linical psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the lead author of the study. If TikTok creators talk about difficulty concentrating, she added, they don\u2019t typically mention that the symptom is not specific to A.D.H.D. or that it could also be a manifestation of a different mental disorder, like depression or anxiety.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThe last thing we want to do is discourage people from expressing how they\u2019re feeling, what they\u2019re experiencing and finding community online,\u201d Ms. Karasavva said. \u201cAt the same time, it might be that you self-diagnose with something that doesn\u2019t apply to you, and then you don\u2019t get the help that you actually need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms. Karasavva\u2019s results echo those of a 2022 study<\/a> that also analyzed 100 popular TikTok videos about A.D.H.D. and found that half of them were misleading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe data are alarming,\u201d said Stephen P. Hinshaw, a professor of psychology and an expert in A.D.H.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in either study. The themes of the videos might easily resonate with viewers, he added, but \u201caccurate diagnosis takes access, time and money.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Even people who have been diagnosed don\u2019t always spot inaccuracies or generalizations about the condition in the social media posts, research suggests.On TikTok, misinformation about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can be tricky to spot, according to a new study.The study, published on Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, found that fewer than 50 percent of the claims made in some of the most popular A.D.H.D. videos on TikTok offered information that matched diagnostic criteria or professional treatment recommendations for the disorder. And, the researchers found, even study participants who had already been diagnosed with A.D.H.D. had trouble discerning which information was most reliable.About half of the TikTok creators included in the study were using the platform to sell products, such as fidget spinners, or services like coaching. None of them were licensed mental health professionals.The lack of nuance is concerning, said Vasileia Karasavva, a Ph.D. student in clinical psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the lead author of the study. If TikTok creators talk about difficulty concentrating, she added, they don\u2019t typically mention that the symptom is not specific to A.D.H.D. or that it could also be a manifestation of a different mental disorder, like depression or anxiety.\u201cThe last thing we want to do is discourage people from expressing how they\u2019re feeling, what they\u2019re experiencing and finding community online,\u201d Ms. Karasavva said. \u201cAt the same time, it might be that you self-diagnose with something that doesn\u2019t apply to you, and then you don\u2019t get the help that you actually need.\u201dMs. Karasavva\u2019s results echo those of a 2022 study that also analyzed 100 popular TikTok videos about A.D.H.D. and found that half of them were misleading.\u201cThe data are alarming,\u201d said Stephen P. Hinshaw, a professor of psychology and an expert in A.D.H.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in either study. The themes of the videos might easily resonate with viewers, he added, but \u201caccurate diagnosis takes access, time and money.\u201dWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24339,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24337"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24340,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24337\/revisions\/24340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}