Is social media creating adult ADHD, or exposing ADHD that clinicians missed for decades?
STUDY: Cobbaert L et al, Australasian Psychiatry 2026
STUDY TYPE: Commentary
FUNDING: Independent
Background
Adult ADHD diagnoses have climbed since the COVID pandemic. Several recent papers have blamed the rise on poor diagnostic practices, social media marketing, and digital overstimulation. This editorial by three researchers in Australia and the UK disputes that view.
Summary
The authors make four points:
- Some of the increase is recognizing valid ADHD in adults who had the disorder as children. The authors separate this from adult onset ADHD, which is not a validated disorder.
- The link with social media runs both ways. While screen time is linked to ADHD symptoms, people with ADHD are also more likely to overuse digital media. Among adults newly diagnosed with ADHD, 59% had at least one behavioral addiction, most often to the internet.
- Screens and poor sleep may unmask lifelong ADHD by overwhelming old coping strategies. Insomnia is more common in ADHD, affecting 67% of adults with ADHD versus 29% of healthy controls.
- Girls and minority groups have long been missed. Women are often diagnosed first with anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, or bipolar disorder, and Black children are more often labeled with conduct disorder.
Practice Implications
- Test for Adult ADHD with a structured interview.
- Avoid a black-or-white approach. Many adults have contributing factors that can cause ADHD, like traumatic brain injury, insomnia, and digital overuse, but some may have underlying ADHD as well.
- Look out for ADHD in women and minority groups where it is underdiagnosed.
—Chris Aiken, MD
Director, Psych Partners
Editor in Chief, Carlat Psychiatry Report
