YouTube and TikTok as a source of medical information on dissociative identity disorder

Abstract

Background: Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is a rare condition that causes alternation of at least two separate personality states and has a prevalence of less than 1% in the general population. This study aims to appraise the social media platforms, YouTube and TikTok, as sources of medical information on DID. Methods: YouTube and TikTok were queried using the following search phrases: “Dissociative Identity Disorder,” “Multiple Personality Disorder,” and “Split Personality Disorder.” The top 60 videos by views for YouTube and likes for TikTok were selected from each search term on each platform. Videos were reviewed by four independent reviewers using a modified DISCERN (mDISCERN) Scale, Global Quality Scale (GQS), and they were further classified as useful, misleading, or neither useful or misleading. Results: Number of videos that met criteria were 60 YouTube videos and 97 TikTok videos. After classification, 51.7% of YouTube videos were useful while only 5.2% of TikTok videos were useful. A significant difference was found between (mDISCERN and GQS) score and the video source, type of content, and classification (α < 0.05). Limitations: This study focused exclusively on English videos. Additionally, it did not evaluate other social media platforms that are used worldwide. Conclusion: This results of this study show the need for healthcare professionals and organizations to not only create content of high quality but increase engagement on social media platforms, particularly TikTok, in order to educate users on DID.

Keywords

• Dissociative identity disorder
• Split personality disorder
• Multiple personality disorder
• Dissociative
• Multiple personality
• Split personality