Lots of clicks, little truth: Videos about mental disorders are widespread and popular on TikTok. But how accurate is the information shared there? Researchers have now investigated this for the first time in German-language TikTok videos on six mental disorders, including ADHD, autism, depression and PTSD. The result: Only 20 percent of the videos viewed a total of 94 million times were factually correct. There is a particularly large amount of misinformation circulating about more complex disorders such as ADHD and narcissism.
“ADHD is a superpower,” “narcissists can’t love,” “autistic people have no sense of direction”: statements like this reach millions of people on TikTok. Younger people in particular no longer watch the short videos just for distraction, but also use the TikTok videos as a source of information – for example about mental illnesses and psychological disorders. The symptoms described in such videos are often used for self-diagnosis.
But this can have serious consequences: “Medical misinformation can lead to delayed or ineffective treatment, prolong and increase the suffering of those affected and lead to chronicity,” explain Aaron Mroß from the University Hospital Essen and the University of Witten/Herdecke and his colleagues. Some studies of TikTok videos in English-speaking countries have already suggested that up to 90 percent of such videos could be misleading.
177 videos with a total of 94 million clicks
But what about German-language videos on TikTok? Are they also mostly technically incorrect? And how does this differ for different forms of mental disorders? Mroß and his colleagues have now examined this in more detail. To do this, they analyzed short videos about the six most common mental illnesses on TikTok: ADHD, depression, autism, anxiety disorders, narcissism and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
For their study, they first created a TikTok profile that follows the hashtags for these six mental disorders. The team then selected and downloaded the first 30 videos displayed by the TikTok algorithm on each of these six topics. They then examined how accurate, inaccurate or incorrect the information shared was and whether each video came from a layperson, a sufferer or an expert. In total, they analyzed almost 180 German-language TikTok videos, which together had been clicked more than 94 million times.
Only every fifth video is correct
The result: Only 19.2 percent of TikTok videos – almost one in five – correctly portrayed the mental disorders and their symptoms, as the researchers determined. “We expected that we would find problematic content,” says Mroß. “But the fact that so many videos spread false information surprised us.” Around a third of the TikTok videos were factually incorrect, another 18 percent were highly generalized and therefore partially misleading. Around 29 percent of the videos only described personal experiences.
For laypeople, it is often difficult to tell which videos on TikTok contain correct, helpful information and which do not. In addition, only 18 percent of the TikTok videos came from psychologists and other professionals, more than 50 percent were uploaded by those affected and almost 30 percent by laypeople. The videos from the last two groups were particularly often either extremely subjective, wrong or at least misleading, as Mroß and his colleagues report.
PTSD still at its best, narcissism completely wrong
However, how reliable and accurate information on TikTok is also depends on the type of mental disorder, the team found. Almost two thirds of the TikTok videos on post-traumatic stress disorder were correct, while less than a third were correct on depression. In the case of ADHD, anxiety disorders or autism, the proportion of correct information was only around ten percent.
By far the worst performers were videos about narcissism. Not a single one of the analyzed videos was rated as correct. Much of the content generally portrayed people with narcissistic personality disorder as cold, manipulative or incapable of relationships. “That doesn’t do justice to those affected,” says Mroß. “Many of these people have had difficult, stressful experiences themselves.”
What are the consequences?
The results thus confirm that there is also a lot of misinformation about mental illnesses circulating on German-language TikTok. This means that if younger people in particular primarily obtain information via this platform, they run the risk of developing false ideas about disorders such as ADHD, depression, autism or obsessive-compulsive disorder. This can lead to them making incorrect self-diagnoses. For example, concentration problems on TikTok are often equated with ADHD, although they can have many causes.
The researchers therefore warn against prematurely diagnosing everyday or unspecific symptoms as mental illnesses or disorders. In addition: “More than 90 percent of the TikTok videos about ADHD tests referred to misleading or incorrect tests and information,” report Mroß and his team. Anyone who completes these tests can quickly come to the conclusion that they suffer from a serious mental disorder, even though they are healthy. Conversely, real illnesses can be trivialized.
Mroß and his colleagues therefore advise people to question medical and psychological information on social media particularly critically and to pay attention to who produced the videos – whether an expert or a layperson. Anyone who suspects that they are affected by a mental disorder should seek professional advice, be it from psychological counseling centers, psychotherapists or even recognized self-help organizations.
Source: Aaron Mroß (University Hospital Essen/Witten University/Herdecke) et al., Clinical Psychology in Europe, 2026; doi: 10.32872/cpe.17279