In a typical spot from San Francisco-based Done, a young woman swallows a pill from an orange prescription bottle while a caption reads “What it’s like to take ADHD medication.”
Combined with other social media posts and sketchy Google search results, the proliferation of drug ads on TikTok can convince kids to diagnose themselves with conditions they may not actually have, according to University of Colorado psychiatrist Dr. C. Neill Epperson. “I hear parents say, you know, my kid comes to me and says, ‘I think I have ADHD, PTSD, bipolar disorder, etc’… they’re like, where is my kid getting this?” Epperson told The Post.
“In my capacity running clinics and advising companies, I would not suggest listing the names of controlled substances as part of marketing,” Shah said. “This could mislead people into thinking the treatment for ADHD is medication,” she said. “When in fact the first line treatment for ADHD should be behavioral therapy before you try meds or behavioral therapy combined with meds.” A third startup, Cerebral, offers both therapy and prescription medications for ADHD and other conditions like anxiety and depression. It previously ran TikTok ads that flaunted ADHD meds but appears to have removed many of them ahead of apublished on Friday.