Misleading social media content about ADHD and autism is contributing to a growing trend of young people incorrectly believing they have neurodevelopmental conditions, according to new research.
The study, carried out by experts at the University of East Anglia and Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, examined the quality of health-related information circulating across major platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and X. Researchers analysed 27 studies covering more than 5,000 social media posts and concluded there was a clear need for higher quality information online.
Among the findings, more than half of ADHD-related videos on TikTok were found to be inaccurate, with 41% of autism content on the platform also containing misinformation. The research, published in The Journal of Social Media Research, found that misinformation rates were consistently higher on TikTok than on any other platform examined.
Across all topics studied, inaccuracy rates varied considerably — from zero percent for anxiety and depression content on YouTube Kids to nearly 57% for claustrophobia videos on standard YouTube. YouTube Kids was the only platform to record no misinformation on certain subjects, which researchers attributed to stricter content moderation and a focus on child-appropriate material.
Dr Eleanor Chatburn of UEA’s Norwich Medical School said many young people were turning to social media to make sense of their symptoms, and while that could serve as a useful starting point, it needed to lead to proper clinical assessment rather than self-diagnosis. She warned that misinformation risked both pathologising ordinary behaviour and delaying genuine diagnoses for those who needed support.
The research team called for strengthened content moderation across platforms, and said TikTok’s recommendation algorithms were particularly prone to amplifying inaccurate health content.
TikTok rejected the findings, describing the study as flawed and based on outdated research. A spokesperson said the platform removed harmful health misinformation and directed users to reliable sources including the World Health Organization.
Judith Brown, head of evidence and research at the National Autistic Society, said the findings illustrated how rapidly misinformation could spread online and called on social media companies to take active steps to limit its reach.
The researchers did not specify a timeline for proposed regulatory or platform-level changes, but the study’s authors indicated the issue warranted urgent attention given the scale of young people’s engagement with health content on social media.
