Mental health on TikTok: themes and content creators behind the hashtag #saudemental in Brazil Letícia Piantino Marques [1] , Ana Laura Vilamaior Taboga [1] , Clarissa Mendonça Corradi-Webster* [1]

https://www.academia.edu/2997-9196/3/2/10.20935/MHealthWellB8264 Introduction: Social media platforms have become important spaces where mental health information circulates and where users interpret and share experiences related to psychological well-being. This study aimed to identify the main themes circulating in TikTok videos tagged with the Brazilian Portuguese hashtag #saudemental (#mentalhealth) and to characterize the professional profiles of their creators. Materials and methods: This exploratory cross-sectional study employed inductive qualitative content analysis of the 100 most-liked videos using the hashtag, totaling more than 54 million likes. Public metadata, full video transcriptions, and self-declared professional information were analyzed. Coding was based on units of meaning, which were grouped into thematic categories. Descriptive statistics were used to contextualize engagement metrics. Results: Ten thematic categories emerged, with content centered on psychiatric diagnoses and symptoms representing the largest proportion of the sample (33 out of 100 videos). The analyzed videos accumulated more than 494 million views. Within the diagnosis-focused category, 55% were informative videos. Among the 100 creators, 46 did not disclose any professional or academic background, 26 identified themselves as psychologists, and only 10 of these provided a professional registration number. Among the ten most-followed creators, none identified as psychologists or psychiatrists. Conclusions: The findings indicate a strong circulation of psychopathological discourse within short-form video environments, reinforcing the prominence of diagnostic language in everyday interpretations of emotional experience. By examining the Brazilian context, this study contributes to international discussions on the reinforcement of distress framed through medical narratives in digital spaces and highlights the need for strengthened digital and health literacy initiatives on algorithmically curated platforms. https://www.academia.edu/journals/academia-mental-health-and-well-being/articles?source=journal-top-nav