ADHD movies on Tiktok can be misleading, research states

According to the novel study, in the case of thicktok disinformation regarding hyperactivity disorder in the attention deficit can be hard.

TestPublished on Wednesday in the Plos One magazine, he said that less than 50 percent of claims made in some of the most popular ADHD films in Tiktok offered information that matched diagnostic criteria or professional treatment recommendations for disorder. And, scientists discovered, even the participants of the study, who were already diagnosed with ADHD, had recognition problems which information was most reliable.

About half of the creators of Tiktok included in the study used the platform for the sale of products such as Fidget spinners or services such as coaching. None of them were licensed mental health specialists.

The lack of nuances is disturbing, said Vasileia Karasavv, a doctorate. Student in CLinear psychology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and the main author of the study. She added that if the creators of Tiktok speak of difficulties, they usually do not mention that the symptom is not specific to ADHD or that this may also be a manifestation of another mental disorder, such as depression or fear.

“The last thing that we want to do is discourage people from expressing how they feel, what they experience and find the community online,” said Karasavva. “At the same time, you may be self -diagnosed with something that does not apply to you, and then you do not get the facilitate you actually need.”

Ms. Karasavvy’s results reflect the results study 2022 This was also analyzed by 100 popular Tiktok O ADHD movies and discovered that half of them were misled.

“The data is disturbing,” said Stephen P. Hinshaw, a psychology professor and an expert at ADHD at the University of California at Berkeley, who was not involved in any research. He added that films can easily resonate with viewers, but “thorough diagnosis requires access, time and money.”

In the study of Mrs. Karasavvy, scientists began with choosing the 100 most -watched films in January 2023 and asked two licensed clinical psychologists to review each film. Psychologists were called to assess whether the films thoroughly captured the symptoms of adhds of adults or teenagers, which are characterized in the fifth edition of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, which are used by doctors in the United States to diagnose and classify mental health conditions.

If the video claim did not match the instructions, psychologists have determined whether the symptoms in the film better reflect another type of disorder or something that anyone can experience, including people without ADHD. Finally, they rated 1 to 5 on a scale

One of the restrictions on the study was that it did not consist on a huge panel of experts to evaluate films.

Then scientists asked over 840 bachelor students to evaluate films using the same scale used by psychologists. Studies participants, who were the most common consumers of the Tiktok related to ADHD, were more prone to other participants to recommend the five most reputable films. But it is more likely that they recommended five lower films. And it was true, regardless of whether ADHD was diagnosed or not.

Mrs. Karasavva said that it could be because the Tiktok algorithm serves films similar to those that a person has already watched – and when we encounter the same information, it is tempting to think that “all these people cannot be wrong”.

“Finally, you can believe in things that do not really match learning,” she said.

In particular, students in the study also significantly overestimated how many people actually had ADHD

Information on Tiktok “They do not always tell you a full story, and can also lead the loudest voices to excessive representation,” said Margaret Sibley, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. “People may not recognize what aspect of their experience ADHD is compared to something else.”