by More than half of all top trend videos that offer advice on mental health to Tiktok contains misinformation.
People are increasingly turning to social media for the support of mental health, but research has shown that many influencers accommodate misinformation, including abused therapeutic language, solutions for “Schnellfix” and false claims.
Those who are looking for help are confronted with dubious advice, e.g. B. with an orange in the shower to reduce anxiety. the promotion of nutritional supplements with a limited basis of evidence to relieve anxiety such as saffron, magnesium glycinate and sacred basil; Methods for healing trauma within an hour; And guidelines that represent normal emotional experiences as a sign of border service disorder or abuse.
MPs and experts said that the results that social media platforms with non -helpful, harmful and sometimes dangerous advice for mental health were “damn” and “worrying”, and asked the government to strengthen the regulation in order to protect the public from the spread of misinformation.
The Guardian recorded the top 100 videos that were posted under the hashtag #Mental health tips on Tikkok, and informed them with psychologists, psychiatrists and academic experts who viewed whether the contributions contained misinformation.
The experts found that 52 out of 100 videos that offer advice on dealing with trauma, neurodendicism, anxiety, depression and serious mental illnesses, contained some misinformation and that many other vague or not helpful.
David Okai, a neuropsychiatrist and researcher in psychological Medicine at King’s College London, who checked the fear and depression-related videos, said some contributions abused therapeutic language, for example with well-being, fear and psychological disorder, which can be interchangeable, “which can actually lead to confusion,” he said.
Many videos gave general advice, which were based on close personal experiences and anecdotal evidence that “may not be generally applicable,” he added.
The contributions reflected how “short -term, attention -grated sound bites can sometimes overshadow the more nuanced realities of qualified therapeutic work on social media. The videos also oversurance.” Although there are strong evidence that support the effectiveness of therapy, it is important to emphasize that it is not magic, a quick solution or a uniform solution, “he said.
Dan Poulter, a former Minister of Health and NHS psychiatrist, who checked the videos about serious mental illnesses, said some of them “pathological experiences and emotions, which indicates that they equate a diagnosis of serious mental illnesses”.
“This is misinformation for impressive people and can also trivialize the life experiences of people with serious mental illnesses.”
Amber Johnston, a psychologist recognized by the British Psychological Society who checked the trauma videos, said that most videos contained a nugget of truth, but tended to over general science and at the same time minimized the complexity of post-traumatic stress disorder or trauma symptoms.
“Each video is guilty that everyone has the same experience with PTBs with similar symptoms that can be easily explained in a 30-second role. The truth is that PTBS and trauma symptoms are very individual experiences that cannot be compared about people, and a trained and accredited clinician to help a person to understand the individual nature of their need,” she said.
“Tikok spreads misinformation by suggesting that there are secret universal tips and truths that can actually feel even worse to a viewer, like a mistake if these tips are not simply healing.”
Tikok said videos were depressed when they prevent people from looking for medical support or promoting dangerous treatments. When people in Great Britain are looking for terms that are with mental illnesses such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorders or neurological development conditions such as autism, they are also aimed at NHS information, said Tikok.
Chi Onwurah, a Labor MP, said that the leading technology committee has examined misinformation on social media. In the investigation of the effectiveness of the online security law, “significant concerns” were expressed in the request for “adapting false and/or harmful content online and the algorithms that recommend it”.
“Content recommendation systems used by platforms such as TikKok increasingly increasingly harmful misinformation such as this misleading or incorrect advice for mental health,” she added. “There is clearly an urgent need to remedy defects in the OSA to ensure that online security and health can protect the public.”
Liberal Democratic MP Victoria Collins agreed that the results were “damn” and asked the government to act to protect people from “harmful misinformation”.
Paulette Hamilton, the MP and incumbent chairman of the Committee for Health and Social Affairs, said that misinformation on social media was “worrying”. “These” tips “on social media should not rely instead of professional, appropriately qualified support,” she said.
Prof. Bernadka Dubicka, the online security advantage of the Royal College of Psychiatrist, said that it could increase awareness, but it is important that people could access current, evidence-based health information from trustworthy sources. Mental illnesses could only be diagnosed by a “comprehensive assessment of a qualified psychiatric specialist”, she added.
A Tikok spokesman said: “Tikok is a place where millions of people express themselves, share their authentic trips to mental health and find a supportive community. There are clear restrictions on the methodology of this study, which opposes this free expression and that people are not allowed to share their own stories.
“We proactively work with health experts from the World Health Organization and NHS to promote reliable information on our platform and to remove 98% of the harmful misinformation before you are reported to us.”
A government spokesman said that the ministers had taken “measures to reduce the effects of harmful mismatch content online through the online security law, which requires platforms to tackle such material if it was illegal or harmful to children.
• In the UK, the charity organization is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline at 0800 1111. In the USA, call or text mental health America under 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. In Australia, support from Beyond Blue under 1300 22 4636, Lifeline is available to 13 11 14 and from Mensline under 1300 789 978
• This article was changed on June 2, 2025. Paulette Hamilton is the incumbent chairman of the selection committee for health and social care, not the chairman, as stated in a previous version due to a processing error. It was also changed to clarify that autism is neurological development, no mental health.
