More than half of all the top trending videos offering mental health advice on TikTok contain misinformation, a Guardian investigation has found.

People are increasingly turning to social media for mental health support, yet research has revealed that many influencers are peddling misinformation, including misused therapeutic language, “quick fix” solutions and false claims.

Those seeking help are confronted with dubious advice, such as eating an orange in the shower to reduce anxiety; the promotion of supplements with a limited evidence base for alleviating anxiety, such as saffron, magnesium glycinate and holy basil; methods to heal trauma within an hour; and guidance presenting normal emotional experiences as a sign of borderline personality disorder or abuse.

MPs and experts said the findings that social media platforms were riddled with unhelpful, harmful and sometimes dangerous mental health advice were “damning” and “concerning”, and urged the government to strengthen regulation to protect the public from the spread of misinformation.

The Guardian took the top 100 videos posted under the #mentalhealthtips hashtag on TikTok and shared them with psychologists, psychiatrists and academic experts, who took a view on whether the posts contained misinformation.

The experts established that 52 out of 100 videos offering advice on dealing with trauma, neurodivergence, anxiety, depression and severe mental illness contained some misinformation, and that many others were vague or unhelpful.

David Okai, a consultant neuropsychiatrist and researcher in psychological medicine at King’s College London who reviewed the anxiety- and depression-related videos, said some posts misused therapeutic language, for example using