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Stories about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, or ADHD, have seen a resurgence in the social media zeitgeist in recent years, and it could lead to more people seeking a diagnosis for the condition.

“Many of my patients would point their phone at the camera and say, ‘Here’s this video I saw on TikTok and that’s why I have ADHD,'” said Dr. Sasha Hamdani. She is a psychiatrist and ADHD specialist and a creator of content about the condition with more than 800,000 followers on TikTok.

Hamdani estimates that about 50% of patients who inquire about the condition actually receive an HDHD diagnosis.

ADHD diagnoses and prescriptions have been increasing across all age groups since before the days of social media. The number of ADHD diagnoses in 2010 was almost five times what it was in 1999. And between 2007 and 2016, the number of ADHD diagnoses in adults more than doubled.

“Certainly the impact of the pandemic was clear in terms of increasing stress, but also the advent of telemedicine has allowed more people to have better access and brought more people into treatment,” said Dr. Lenard Adler, director of the adult ADHD program at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. “I don’t think we have a straight answer, but ADHD drug prescriptions have certainly increased in recent years.”

Social media content can be a problematic source of health information. A media analysis of popular TikTok videos revealed that about half of the videos examined contained misleading or potentially misinformation.

“I think heightened awareness is always what I would call a double-edged sword,” said Dr. Anthony Yeung, a psychiatrist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia, and one of the study’s authors. “I think we’ve definitely moved into an area where we’re talking about mental health that’s really positive. There’s a lot less stigma.”

“But the other side of this double-edged sword is that sometimes when we talk about mental health symptoms or diagnoses, we run the risk of potentially misinterpreting things that fall on the spectrum of normal as pathological again,” Yeung said.

This influx of people all at once seeking treatment can create a supply and demand problem.

“What I see in my practice is that we have a six-month waiting list to be admitted. And we’re incredibly busy,” said Adler. “Some of that is from the pandemic, but I think there’s a general need for services at this point.”

Some people may start self-diagnosing when they don’t have access to treatment, which can come at a cost.

“One of the challenges with self-diagnosis is that it can lead to increased anxiety in individuals,” Yeung said. “Sometimes when people talk about symptoms online, those symptoms aren’t necessarily representative of a specific disease or disorder, but it can be talked about in a way that anyone watching this video actually sees it as such and thinks they have it has diagnosis.”

This bottleneck does not only apply to doctor visits. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced in October that both the brand name and generic form of Adderall are in short supply in the United States

“Logistically, it’s been a nightmare for both patients and providers,” Hamdani said. “[Stimulant medications] are so tightly controlled that you can’t easily transfer it [to a different pharmacy]. You must abort a script. Then you have to find another pharmacy that has it. At this point it may not be filled because other people have filled it there. It’s a lot of logistical shifts and work on that front. And that’s extremely frustrating for the patient.”

Watch them Video above to learn more about the rise in ADHD in the United States and whether the healthcare system can handle the rising demand.

Pfizer has denied allegations by the rival Modern that its Covid-19 vaccine is a copy, and accuses the Boston-based biotech of rewriting history to claim technology developed by a field of scientists over many years.

Pfizer filed Monday in a Massachusetts federal court to dismiss Moderna’s claim for damages alleging patent infringement related to the Boston-based company’s Covid vaccine. Pfizer asked the court to prevent Moderna from re-suing it or its partners over three alleged patent infringements.

Moderna, in a complaint filed in August, accused Pfizer of copying two key technologies that make the messenger RNA Covid vaccines possible.

Moderna accused Pfizer of using the same modification to mRNA that keeps the molecule stable long enough to program human cells to produce the crucial spike protein that ignites an immune response against Covid.

Moderna also accused Pfizer of using the same full-length spike protein in its Covid shots. Moderna says it showed that a full spike elicited an immune response in 2015 when it was developing an mRNA vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome. This vaccine never came to market.

“The Moderna inventions that Pfizer and BioNTech sought to copy were the basis for the success of their vaccine,” the company claimed.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech vehemently denied those allegations, saying the technological building blocks for the vaccines were developed by a field of researchers before the pandemic began. They accused Moderna of trying to “take the spotlight on her own.”

“Moderna is wrong, and its revisionist history is not based on fact. Pfizer and BioNTech did not copy Moderna’s technology,” Pfizer said in its response. “Instead, Pfizer and BioNTech developed their vaccine independently, leveraging innovation from their respective scientists and drawing on decades of research conducted by others before the onset of the pandemic.”

According to Pfizer, the mRNA modification was developed by University of Pennsylvania researchers, one of whom is now an executive at BioNTech. It rejected Moderna’s claim to possess full-length Spike Protein technology. Pfizer said scientists had been concerned about coronaviruses since the 2003 SARS outbreak, and by 2009 scientists understood the full-length spike triggered a powerful immune response.

Pfizer and Moderna have raked in tens of billions of dollars in revenue from the Covid vaccines since vaccines were first approved in December 2020, and have reaped windfall profits.

Moderna is asking the court to award it monetary damages, including royalties and lost profits with interest, since March 2022. The company is also demanding increased damages of up to three times the damages determined.

The Centers for Disease Prevention on Monday urged people to wear masks to reduce the spread of respiratory illnesses this season as Covid, flu and RSV circulate at the same time.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, in a call with reporters, said wearing a mask is one of several everyday precautions people can take to reduce their chances of catching or spreading a respiratory virus during the busy holiday season.

“We also encourage you to wear a quality, well-fitting mask to help prevent the spread of respiratory disease,” Walensky said, adding that people living in areas of high Covid transmission should give special thought to masking.

The CDC director said the agency is considering expanding its system of Covid community levels to include other respiratory viruses, such as the flu. The system is the basis for when CDC advises the public to wear masks. But Walensky encouraged people to be proactive.

“You don’t have to wait for CDC action to put on a mask,” Walensky said. “We would encourage all of these preventive measures – washing hands, staying home if you’re sick, masking, increased ventilation – during the respiratory virus season, but especially in areas with high levels of Covid-19 community.”

About 5% of the US population lives in counties where the CDC officially recommends masks due to high levels of Covid. The CDC still recommends masking for anyone traveling by plane, train, bus or other public transportation, Walensky said.

People with weakened immune systems and people who are otherwise at increased risk of serious illness should also consider wearing a mask, the CDC director said.

Walensky strongly encouraged everyone who is eligible to receive their flu shot and Covid booster. Flu shot coverage is lagging in at-risk groups — children under 5, pregnant women and at-risk seniors — compared to last year, the CDC director said. There is no vaccine against RSV.

“I would like to emphasize that the flu vaccine can be life-saving and, most importantly, there is still time to get vaccinated against the flu and its potentially serious consequences this season,” Walensky said.

The flu arrived early and hit the US hard, with hospitalizations a decade high for this time of year. More than 8.7 million people have fallen ill, 78,000 have been hospitalized and 4,500 have died from the flu this season, according to CDC data. Fourteen children have died from the flu so far this season.

More than 19,000 people were hospitalized with the flu in the week ended Nov. 26, almost double the number for the previous week, according to CDC data.

The number of people hospitalized with Covid also increased by 27% in the week ended December 2, according to CDC data. And respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has hospitalized children more frequently than in previous years. Walensky said RSV appears to have peaked in the southeast and may be flattening out in the mid-Atlantic, although spread of the virus remains high across much of the country.

“We are now facing another wave of disease. Another moment of strained capacity and truly a tragic and often preventable death,” Walensky said as she thanked health care workers for their service during the repeated waves of illness they have faced since the Covid pandemic began.

dr Sandra Fryhofer, chief executive officer of the American Medical Association, said the simultaneous spread of Covid, flu and RSV was “a perfect storm for a terrible holiday season.” Fryhofer said she understands many people are fed up with repeated Covid vaccinations but getting vaccinated is the best way to avoid getting sick over the holidays.

“You could get really, really sick this year and ruin your holiday celebrations if you don’t get vaccinated,” Fryhofer said during Monday’s call.

The Children’s Hospital Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics last month called on the Biden administration to declare a public health emergency in response to the surge in pediatric hospitalizations from RSV and the flu.