Does the Portrayal of Dissociative Identity Disorder on TikTok Represent the Diverse Symptomatology of Its Clinical Presentation?

Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is increasingly depicted on popular online platforms such as TikTok. The present study aimed to analyze the portrayal of DID symptoms on TikTok, by comparing the frequency of clinical DID symptoms displayed in these videos to clinical data. Five popular DID-related hashtags were identified and a sample of 55 videos per hashtag were randomly selected to be analyzed (N = 249). Video engagement metrics and content-creator descriptives were gathered, and the core clinical symptoms of DID were assessed based on the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). The frequencies of DID symptoms in the TikTok videos were compared to a sample of 41 patients with a DID diagnosis clinically confirmed by the SCID-D-R (Dell, 2006). Results showed that most content was produced by creators with unknown credentials, and very few videos were from mental health professionals. Memory problems (amnesia) were the most frequently reported symptom in both samples, however no other symptoms occurred at the same relative frequency. In the DID-related TikTok videos all symptoms apart from amnesia were presented at <10% frequency, compared to having >75% occurrence in the clinical sample. The representation of DID on TikTok is not fully representative of clinical data and does not cover the full scope of clinical DID symptoms.