Library
The bibliography is the backbone
Priority order: systematic reviews and meta-analyses, longitudinal work, controlled studies, large observational studies, clinical studies, cross-sectional work, case series, case reports, expert perspectives, commentary. Opinion may raise questions. It does not close them.
43 records · commentary is never treated as scientific evidence even when shown.
- 2022umbrella reviewStrong evidence
Social media use and its impact on adolescent mental health: An umbrella review of the evidence
Valkenburg, P. M., Meier, A. & Beyens, I. · Current Opinion in Psychology
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · depression, anxiety, general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Umbrella review finds predominantly small associations, substantial heterogeneity, and a literature still unable to support uniform harmful or uniform beneficial conclusions.
- Limitations
- Depends on quality of included reviews; little evidence on algorithms or self-diagnosis specifically.
- Relevance to this project
- Best available synthesis of social-media/mental-health reviews as of the early 2020s.
- 2021meta analysisStrong evidence
Global prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms in children and adolescents during COVID-19: a meta-analysis
Racine, N. et al. · JAMA Pediatrics
- Sample
- 29 samples; ~80,000 youth · Children and adolescents
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · depression, anxiety
- Major findings
- Pooled prevalence of clinically elevated depression and anxiety symptoms during COVID-19 was substantially higher than pre-pandemic estimates, with older adolescents and girls more affected in many samples.
- Limitations
- Symptom scales ≠ diagnoses; pandemic studies were opportunistic; cannot attribute the rise to social media.
- Relevance to this project
- COVID-era distress increased. That fact is a confounder for any social-media-only explanation of 2020–2022 clinical surges.
- 2020narrative reviewStrong evidence
Annual Research Review: Adolescent mental health in the digital age: facts, fears, and future directions
Odgers, C. L. & Jensen, M. R. · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · depression, anxiety, general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Reviews evidence that most associations between digital technology use and adolescent mental health are small, mixed, and poorly suited to strong causal claims. Calls for better designs, attention to individual differences, and less moral panic.
- Limitations
- Narrative review; literature itself is dominated by cross-sectional self-report.
- Relevance to this project
- Sets the scientific baseline: fear of social media has often outrun the quality of available evidence.
- 2020systematic reviewAssociation
A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents
Keles, B., McCrae, N. & Grealish, A. · International Journal of Adolescence and Youth
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · depression, anxiety
- Major findings
- Most included studies reported positive associations between social-media use and depression, anxiety, or distress, but were largely cross-sectional with heterogeneous measures.
- Limitations
- Cannot support causation; quality of included studies is limited.
- Relevance to this project
- Shows how easy it is to summarise a literature as “harmful” when designs cannot bear that inference.
- 2019systematic reviewModerate evidence
Young people’s online help-seeking and mental health difficulties: systematic narrative review
Pretorius, C., Chambers, D. & Coyle, D. · Journal of Medical Internet Research
- Sample
- Not stated here · Young people
- Platform / condition
- search, general-social-media, forums · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Young people use the internet to understand symptoms, decide whether they have a problem, and find informal or professional help. Anonymity and accessibility are facilitators; quality and overwhelm are barriers.
- Limitations
- Help-seeking studies rarely include clinical confirmation of self-identified problems.
- Relevance to this project
- Key evidence that online information is already part of the help-seeking pathway.
- 2017systematic reviewModerate evidence
A systematic review of the relationship between internet use, self-harm and suicidal behaviour in young people: The good, the bad and the unknown
Marchant, A. et al. · PLOS ONE
- Sample
- Not stated here · Young people
- Platform / condition
- forums, general-social-media · self-harm
- Major findings
- Internet use related to self-harm shows both harmful pathways (normalization, reinforcement, contagion of methods) and potentially helpful ones (support, crisis help). Evidence quality is mixed.
- Limitations
- Heterogeneous designs; ethical constraints on experiments.
- Relevance to this project
- Self-harm is a condition where dual effects of online communities are unusually well documented.
- 2016systematic reviewModerate evidence
A systematic review of the impact of the use of social networking sites on body image and disordered eating outcomes
Holland, G. & Tiggemann, M. · Body Image
- Sample
- Not stated here · Mostly adolescent and young-adult females
- Platform / condition
- facebook, instagram, general-social-media · eating-disorders
- Major findings
- Use of social networking sites, especially appearance-focused use, is associated with body-image concerns and disordered eating; experimental evidence is stronger for comparison/appearance mechanisms than for total time.
- Limitations
- Causation still incomplete; platform mix dated relative to TikTok.
- Relevance to this project
- Among the better-evidenced content-specific pathways: appearance comparison, not generic “social media”.
- 2012meta analysisContested
Evaluation of the evidence for the trauma and fantasy models of dissociation
Dalenberg, C. J. et al. · Psychological Bulletin
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · did, ptsd
- Major findings
- Argues that the evidence better supports a trauma model of dissociation than a pure fantasy/sociocognitive model, while acknowledging complexity.
- Limitations
- Does not address TikTok-era self-identification; measurement of dissociation is disputed.
- Relevance to this project
- Represents the traumagenic side of a still-active scientific controversy.
- 2010systematic reviewStrong evidence
Perceived barriers and facilitators to mental health help-seeking in young people: a systematic review
Gulliver, A., Griffiths, K. M. & Christensen, H. · BMC Psychiatry
- Sample
- Not stated here · Young people
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Stigma, embarrassment, poor mental-health literacy, and preference for self-reliance are consistent barriers; positive past experiences and social support facilitate help-seeking.
- Limitations
- Pre-TikTok literature; still highly relevant to access and destigmatization hypotheses.
- Relevance to this project
- Explains why self-diagnosis can be a response to inaccessible or stigmatized care.
- 2020longitudinalModerate evidence
Does time spent using social media impact mental health?: An eight year longitudinal study
Coyne, S. M., Rogers, A. A., Zurcher, J. D., Stockdale, L. & Booth, M. · Computers in Human Behavior
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents followed into young adulthood
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · depression, anxiety
- Major findings
- Eight-year longitudinal data did not show that within-person increases in time on social media were associated with later increases in depression or anxiety.
- Limitations
- Time-use measure rather than content or recommendation exposure; U.S. sample.
- Relevance to this project
- Time-on-site is a poor proxy for the pathways this project investigates.
- 2020experience samplingModerate evidence
The effect of social media on well-being differs from adolescent to adolescent
Beyens, I., Pouwels, J. L., van Driel, I. I., Keijsers, L. & Valkenburg, P. M. · Scientific Reports
- Sample
- 387 adolescents · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- instagram, general-social-media · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Person-specific analyses showed that social-media effects on well-being ranged from negative to positive to null. Average effects concealed this heterogeneity.
- Limitations
- Short-term well-being, not psychiatric diagnosis or self-labelling; WhatsApp included among platforms.
- Relevance to this project
- Average effects are the wrong unit of analysis for the questions this site asks.
- 2019longitudinalModerate evidence
The longitudinal association between social-media use and depressive symptoms among adolescents and young adults: An empirical reply to Twenge et al. (2018)
Heffer, T., Good, M., Daly, O., MacDonell, E. & Willoughby, T. · Clinical Psychological Science
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents and young adults
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · depression
- Major findings
- Longitudinal analyses found little evidence that social-media use predicted later depressive symptoms; some evidence that depressive symptoms predicted later social-media use, consistent with reverse causation.
- Limitations
- Self-report; specific cohorts; does not test content type or algorithms.
- Relevance to this project
- Directly illustrates reverse causation as a live alternative to “social media → depression”.
- 2019longitudinalAssociation
Associations between time spent using social media and internalizing and externalizing problems among US youth
Riehm, K. E. et al. · JAMA Psychiatry
- Sample
- Not stated here · U.S. adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · depression, anxiety
- Major findings
- Greater social-media time was associated with internalizing (and some externalizing) problems in a nationally relevant longitudinal sample, after some covariate adjustment.
- Limitations
- Residual confounding likely; time-use rather than content; not diagnostic outcomes.
- Relevance to this project
- A frequently cited longitudinal association—still not a mechanism study.
- 2019longitudinalEmerging
Effects of exposure to self-harm on social media: Evidence from a two-wave panel study among young adults
Arendt, F., Scherr, S. & Romer, D. · New Media & Society
- Sample
- Not stated here · Young adults
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media, instagram · self-harm
- Major findings
- Panel data suggested that exposure to self-harm content was associated with later self-harm ideation/behaviour after prior levels were considered, consistent with a social-learning concern—while not proving a simple contagion model.
- Limitations
- Self-report; young adults not younger adolescents; residual confounding.
- Relevance to this project
- Rare longitudinal evidence on content exposure rather than mere time-use.
- 2022longitudinalModerate evidence
Windows of developmental sensitivity to social media
Orben, A., Przybylski, A. K., Blakemore, S.-J. & Kievit, R. A. · Nature Communications
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents, with sex-stratified windows
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Identified developmental windows in which the association between social-media use and life satisfaction was somewhat stronger, with different timing for girls and boys.
- Limitations
- Life satisfaction is not clinical diagnosis; still associational; UK datasets.
- Relevance to this project
- Adolescence is not a uniform exposure period. Developmental timing matters.
- 2021longitudinalModerate evidence
There is no evidence that associations between adolescents’ digital technology engagement and mental health problems have increased
Vuorre, M., Orben, A. & Przybylski, A. K. · Clinical Psychological Science
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · depression, general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Analyses of large datasets found no compelling evidence that the association between technology engagement and mental-health problems had strengthened over time.
- Limitations
- Still associational; coarse technology measures.
- Relevance to this project
- Challenges the claim that social media has become progressively more pathogenic as platforms evolved.
- 2021cross sectionalModerate evidence
Trends in public stigma of mental illness in the US, 1996–2018
Pescosolido, B. A., Halpern-Manners, A., Luo, L. & Perry, B. · JAMA Network Open
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · depression, general-mental-health
- Major findings
- U.S. public stigma showed mixed change: some improvement in attitudes toward depression, less consistent change for other conditions; social-distance preferences remained substantial.
- Limitations
- Vignette-based public opinion, not online community behaviour.
- Relevance to this project
- Destigmatization is real but uneven—and cannot by itself explain condition-specific online surges.
- 2021cross sectionalModerate evidence
The echo chamber effect on social media
Cinelli, M. et al. · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- facebook, twitter-x, reddit, multiple · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Quantifies homophily and echo-chamber structure across platforms, finding platform-dependent segregation in information ecosystems.
- Limitations
- Political/news content, not mental-health communities; structure ≠ psychological effect.
- Relevance to this project
- Shows that some platforms cluster users with similar content; extending this to psychiatric identity is an inference, not a finding.
- 2019specification curveStrong evidence
The association between adolescent well-being and digital technology use
Orben, A. & Przybylski, A. K. · Nature Human Behaviour
- Sample
- Three large-scale social datasets · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Across thousands of analytic specifications, associations between digital technology use and adolescent well-being were small—typically explaining well under 1% of variation—and sensitive to analytical choices.
- Limitations
- Observational; self-report; cannot establish causation; well-being measures are not clinical diagnoses.
- Relevance to this project
- A methodological benchmark showing that crude screen-time associations are weak and specification-dependent. Does not directly test self-diagnosis or identity pathways.
- 2018cross sectionalAssociation
Increases in depressive symptoms, suicide-related outcomes, and suicide rates among U.S. adolescents after 2010 and links to increased new media screen time
Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L. & Martin, G. N. · Clinical Psychological Science
- Sample
- Not stated here · U.S. adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · depression, self-harm
- Major findings
- Documents a rise in adolescent depressive symptoms and suicide-related outcomes after 2010 and reports associations with new-media screen time. Interprets the temporal coincidence with smartphone adoption as suggestive.
- Limitations
- Largely between-person and ecological; cannot isolate social media from other cohort changes; has been challenged on design and confounding.
- Relevance to this project
- A central paper in the “smartphones caused the adolescent mental-health crisis” debate—important as a hypothesis-generating ecological argument, not as causal proof.
- 2009content analysisModerate evidence
Cyberchondria: Studies of the escalation of medical concerns in web search
White, R. W. & Horvitz, E. · ACM Transactions on Information Systems
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- search · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Log analyses showed that web search can escalate medical concern: ambiguous symptoms lead to queries about serious disease, which can increase anxiety and further searching.
- Limitations
- Search, not TikTok; health anxiety analogue rather than psychiatric self-diagnosis per se.
- Relevance to this project
- A documented information-escalation mechanism that recommendation systems could in principle recapitulate.
- 2022clinical seriesClinical observation
Stop that! It's not Tourette's but a new type of mass sociogenic illness
Müller-Vahl, K. R., Pisarenko, A., Jakubovski, E. & Fremer, C. · Brain
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents and young adults, predominantly female
- Platform / condition
- youtube, tiktok · functional-tics, tics-tourette
- Major findings
- Describes a rise in functional tic-like behaviours phenomenologically distinct from classic Tourette syndrome, temporally associated with popular Tourette-related social-media content, and interprets the phenomenon as a contemporary sociogenic presentation.
- Limitations
- Clinical observation and case material cannot establish population incidence or exclusive social-media causation; alternative stressors (including the pandemic) co-occurred.
- Relevance to this project
- The most-cited clinical argument that socially mediated functional symptoms can resemble a neurodevelopmental disorder without being that disorder.
- 2021clinical seriesCase series
Rapid onset functional tic-like behaviors in young females during the COVID-19 pandemic
Pringsheim, T., Ganos, C., McGuire, J. F. et al. · Movement Disorders
- Sample
- Not stated here · Young females
- Platform / condition
- tiktok, general-social-media · functional-tics
- Major findings
- Multiple movement-disorder centres reported a surge of rapid-onset, complex, often coprolalic or explosive tic-like behaviours in adolescent females during the pandemic, differing from typical Tourette phenomenology and course.
- Limitations
- Case series; referral bias; pandemic confound; social-media exposure often reported, not experimentally manipulated.
- Relevance to this project
- Independent clinical replication of an unusual presentation, not a proof of a single cause.
- 2021clinical seriesClinical observation
COVID-19 related increase in childhood tics and tic-like attacks
Heyman, I., Liang, H. & Hedderly, T. · Archives of Disease in Childhood
- Sample
- Not stated here · Children and adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · tics-tourette, functional-tics
- Major findings
- Reports a clinical increase in tics and tic-like attacks during COVID-19, including explosive functional-like presentations, with discussion of anxiety, deprivation, and media exposure as candidate contributors.
- Limitations
- Commentary/clinical report; cannot partition causes.
- Relevance to this project
- Documents the phenomenon while keeping pandemic stress on the table.
- 2018narrative reviewEstablished
Current concepts in diagnosis and treatment of functional neurological disorders
Espay, A. J. et al. · JAMA Neurology
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · functional-neurological
- Major findings
- Summarizes rule-in diagnosis of functional neurological disorder, emphasizing that symptoms are genuine, not feigned, and arise through mechanisms distinct from the diseases they may resemble.
- Limitations
- Not about social media.
- Relevance to this project
- The conceptual foundation for not collapsing functional symptoms into malingering.
- 2016qualitativeClinical observation
Exploring the experience of self-diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder in adults
Lewis, L. F. · Archives of Psychiatric Nursing
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adults
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · autism
- Major findings
- Qualitative accounts of adult autism self-diagnosis describe recognition, relief, and identity reconstruction, often after barriers to formal assessment. Self-diagnosis was typically a meaning-making process, not a casual label.
- Limitations
- Small qualitative sample; cannot estimate accuracy or prevalence.
- Relevance to this project
- Shows why self-identification can be a rational response to access barriers and missed clinical recognition, especially in adults.
- 2022content analysisModerate evidence
TikTok and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A cross-sectional study of social media content quality
Yeung, A., Ng, E. & Abi-Jaoude, E. · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
- Sample
- 100 most popular ADHD TikTok videos · Content analysis (not a clinical sample)
- Platform / condition
- tiktok · adhd
- Major findings
- A large share of highly viewed ADHD TikTok videos were classified as misleading when judged against clinical guidelines; anecdotal content was common and healthcare professionals were a minority of creators.
- Limitations
- Accuracy of videos is not the same as effects on viewers; coding depends on guideline interpretation; platform ranking changes.
- Relevance to this project
- Strong evidence that high-reach diagnostic content can be inaccurate. Does not by itself show that viewers self-diagnose or that diagnoses are wrong.
- 2021content analysisEmerging
TikTok tics: A pandemic within a pandemic
Olvera, C., Stebbins, G. T., Goetz, C. G. & Kompoliti, K. · Movement Disorders Clinical Practice
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- tiktok · functional-tics, tics-tourette
- Major findings
- Analyses of popular TikTok tic content found presentations that often diverged from classic Tourette phenomenology (abrupt severe coprophenomena, long complex sequences, atypical demographics).
- Limitations
- Content is not patients; viewers and creators are not a defined clinical cohort.
- Relevance to this project
- Shows that the information environment contained atypical models of “tics”.
- 2021case reportCase series
Tics and TikTok: Functional tics spread through social media
Hull, M. & Parnes, M. · Movement Disorders Clinical Practice
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescent females
- Platform / condition
- tiktok · functional-tics
- Major findings
- Clinical descriptions of functional tic-like behaviours in youth with substantial TikTok tic-content exposure, with symptoms overlapping those displayed by popular creators.
- Limitations
- Small clinical sample; exposure is retrospective and unquantified.
- Relevance to this project
- Supports face validity of a modelling pathway without proving population-level contagion.
- 2023theoreticalMechanistically plausible
Are mental health awareness efforts contributing to the rise in reported mental health problems? A call to test the prevalence inflation hypothesis
Foulkes, L. & Andrews, J. L. · New Ideas in Psychology
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Proposes that awareness campaigns and expanded mental-health discourse may increase reporting and some genuine problems via interpretative and looping effects (prevalence inflation), not only uncover previously hidden illness.
- Limitations
- Hypothesis paper; empirical tests remain limited.
- Relevance to this project
- A core competing explanation for rising identification: awareness can change interpretation, not only detection.
- 2023narrative reviewModerate evidence
Understanding social media recommendation algorithms
Narayanan, A. · Knight First Amendment Institute
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- tiktok, youtube, facebook, twitter-x · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Explains engagement-based ranking, how optimization for predicted engagement can create feedback loops, and why “the algorithm” is often a mix of user choices, creator incentives, and model objectives.
- Limitations
- Not a mental-health study; limited access to proprietary models.
- Relevance to this project
- Best public primer on mechanisms that could amplify mental-health content without proving that they do, or that amplification changes self-concept.
https://knightcolumbia.org/content/understanding-social-media-recommendation-algorithms
- 2020narrative reviewModerate evidence
The effects of social deprivation on adolescent development and mental health
Orben, A., Tomova, L. & Blakemore, S.-J. · The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Reviews why peer interaction is developmentally salient in adolescence and how COVID-era social deprivation could affect mental health—while noting that digital communication may partly buffer isolation.
- Limitations
- Written early in the pandemic; not a test of social-media content effects.
- Relevance to this project
- Frames COVID as a disruption of peer ecology, not only as a screen-time shock.
- 2020narrative reviewModerate evidence
Social media and mental health: benefits, risks, and opportunities for research and practice
Naslund, J. A., Bondre, A., Torous, J. & Aschbrenner, K. A. · Journal of Technology in Behavioral Science
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Balances potential benefits (connection, stigma reduction, help-seeking) against risks (misinformation, social comparison, harmful content) and maps research opportunities.
- Limitations
- Broad review; mixed primary-study quality.
- Relevance to this project
- Supports a dual-pathway framing rather than a single harm story.
- 2018theoreticalMechanistically plausible
Transformation of adolescent peer relations in the social media context: Part 1—A theoretical framework and overview of empirical findings
Nesi, J., Choukas-Bradley, S. & Prinstein, M. J. · Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Argues that social media transforms peer relations along dimensions such as asynchronicity, permanence, publicness, cue absence, quantifiability, and visualness—changing the ecology of adolescent social life rather than merely adding screen time.
- Limitations
- Framework paper; not a causal test.
- Relevance to this project
- Provides the conceptual language for why likes, audiences, and recommendation may matter more than minutes online.
- 2016theoreticalModerate evidence
Concept creep: Psychology’s expanding concepts of harm and pathology
Haslam, N. · Psychological Inquiry
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Documents vertical and horizontal expansion of harm-related concepts (abuse, bullying, trauma, mental disorder), with mixed implications for recognition versus over-inclusiveness.
- Limitations
- Conceptual analysis, not an epidemiological test of social media.
- Relevance to this project
- Diagnostic language can expand independently of platform algorithms.
- 2016narrative reviewModerate evidence
The future of mental health care: peer-to-peer support and social media
Naslund, J. A., Aschbrenner, K. A., Marsch, L. A. & Bartels, S. J. · Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- general-social-media · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Reviews how online peer support can reduce isolation, offer experiential knowledge, and complement clinical care, while noting risks of misinformation and lack of moderation.
- Limitations
- Not a quantitative synthesis of outcomes.
- Relevance to this project
- Primary citation for the benefit pathway: communities can support, not only reinforce symptoms.
- 2014narrative reviewModerate evidence
Depression and social identity: An integrative review
Cruwys, T., Haslam, S. A., Dingle, G. A., Haslam, C. & Jetten, J. · Personality and Social Psychology Review
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · depression
- Major findings
- Social identity can protect mental health (“social cure”) or, in some conditions, maintain symptoms when a valued group identity is organized around illness.
- Limitations
- Mostly offline groups; mixed causal evidence.
- Relevance to this project
- Community membership is not automatically harmful or helpful—it depends on identity content and norms.
- 2014narrative reviewStrong evidence
Is adolescence a sensitive period for sociocultural processing?
Blakemore, S.-J. & Mills, K. L. · Annual Review of Psychology
- Sample
- Not stated here · Adolescents
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Reviews evidence that adolescence involves heightened sensitivity to social evaluation, peer influence, and identity-relevant cues, grounded in ongoing brain development.
- Limitations
- Does not measure social media.
- Relevance to this project
- Why adolescents may be more susceptible to social reinforcement and identity cues than other age groups—if such effects exist.
- 2012narrative reviewContested
Dissociation and dissociative disorders: Challenging conventional wisdom
Lynn, S. J., Lilienfeld, S. O., Merckelbach, H., Giesbrecht, T. & van der Kloet, D. · Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · did
- Major findings
- Summarizes sociocognitive and sleep-related accounts of dissociative phenomena, questioning trauma-necessity claims and highlighting iatrogenic and cultural shaping of DID presentations.
- Limitations
- Review/position; opponents argue it underweights trauma evidence.
- Relevance to this project
- The sociocognitive pole of the DID debate—relevant to social-learning hypotheses, not proof of online fabrication.
- 2010theoreticalModerate evidence
The impact of illness identity on recovery from severe mental illness
Yanos, P. T., Roe, D. & Lysaker, P. H. · American Journal of Psychiatric Rehabilitation
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Develops illness identity as a construct: how far a diagnosis becomes a defining self-story, with consequences for hope, stigma, and recovery—without treating identity as inherently pathological.
- Limitations
- Conceptual; originally focused on severe mental illness, not social-media self-diagnosis.
- Relevance to this project
- Gives a non-pejorative vocabulary for identity integration of diagnostic labels.
- 2004narrative reviewContested
The persistence of folly: A critical examination of dissociative identity disorder. Part I
Piper, A. & Merskey, H. · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · did
- Major findings
- A strongly sceptical review of DID as a diagnostic construct, emphasizing iatrogenesis, role enactment, and weak evidence for discrete personalities as natural kinds.
- Limitations
- Polemical; does not reflect later neuroimaging or treatment literature; not about social media.
- Relevance to this project
- Shows that DID controversy long predates TikTok. Online trends must be read against that history.
- 2002narrative reviewModerate evidence
Protean nature of mass sociogenic illness: From possessed nuns to chemical and biological terrorism fears
Bartholomew, R. E. & Wessely, S. · The British Journal of Psychiatry
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · functional-neurological
- Major findings
- Reviews historical mass sociogenic illness, noting that presentations track culturally available symptom models and beliefs about threat.
- Limitations
- Historical/clinical synthesis; not a social-media study.
- Relevance to this project
- Places current debates in a longer history: socially patterned functional illness is not new.
- 1993narrative reviewEstablished
Emotional contagion
Hatfield, E., Cacioppo, J. T. & Rapson, R. L. · Current Directions in Psychological Science
- Sample
- Not stated here
- Platform / condition
- not-platform-specific · general-mental-health
- Major findings
- Foundational account of emotional contagion: people can automatically mimic and synchronize affective expressions, producing convergent emotion.
- Limitations
- Laboratory interpersonal processes; far from psychiatric diagnosis on TikTok.
- Relevance to this project
- A mechanism sometimes loosely invoked as “contagion.” Emotional mimicry ≠ disorder transmission.