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TikTok is promoting “sketchy” new telehealth startups offering prescription drugs such as Adderall to teenage and young adult users. Prescriptions for Adderall increased by 25 percent for the 24-44 age group during the pandemic, which some experts have attributed to “the emergence of digital mental health platforms.”
Recode tells the story of a TikTok user referred to as Nick C., a 25-year-old food service worker from western Iowa who began to watch the content of TikTok influencer Connor DeWolfe. Most of DeWolfe’s content relates to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and his experience with his diagnosis.
Nick began to identify with many of the symptoms that DeWolfe described. “All of his content hit very close, and I binge-watched almost all of it,” Nick told Recode, adding: “Then more ADHD content started appearing.” Through constant exposure, despite never being formally diagnosed with ADHD, Nick became convinced he had the disorder and that stimulants would help his mental condition.
Soon, TikTok began serving ads to Nick for Done, a telehealth startup company that said its providers could diagnose patients with ADHD and write prescriptions for “treatment” — usually stimulants like Adderall.
