Pharmacist working in youth mental health exploring TikTok’s role in medication information

Madelynn Hannah is the inaugural Paediatric Psychopharmacology Fellow in Garry Hurvitz Centre for Brain & Mental Health at SickKids  

Mental health conditions in young people – and the use of medication to treat them – have become more prominent in recent years. According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, in 2020, nearly a quarter of hospitalizations for children, youth and young adults aged 5 to 24 were for mental health conditions, and use of mood and anxiety medication in this same age group has steadily increased in the past five years.

Madelynn Hannah is focusing her pharmacy career on supporting these young patients. As the inaugural Fellow in Paediatric Psychopharmacology in the Garry Hurvitz Centre for Brain & Mental Health (GH-CBMH) at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and a graduate student in the Master of Science in Pharmacy (MScPhm) program at U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Hannah is gaining critical skills in clinical care and research to potentially improve future care for children and youth.

“The patients we care for often have multiple health issues that need to be addressed, and many different clinicians are involved,” says Hannah. “Pharmacotherapy is an important part of care and having a dedicated pharmacist on the interprofessional team is important to focus specifically on medications and make sure patients are getting the most effective, safe and convenient treatment.”

While completing the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program at U of T, Hannah knew she wanted to work with patients with mental health and substance use disorders throughout her career.

After graduating in 2020, Hannah completed a hospital residency at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and subsequently continued to work there as a clinical pharmacist. When she saw the opportunity to pursue the fellowship in paediatric pharmacology at the same time as graduate studies in the MScPhm program, she jumped at the chance.

“This fellowship is such a good opportunity to explore several different areas. I’m in a unique position to have this clinical role as well as protected time for additional coursework and to build my research experience,” she says. “The ability to provide pharmacy services to the kids, while doing research that is informed by my clinical practice and will hopefully also inform my clinical practice in the future has been very rewarding.”

The fellowship in paediatric psychopharmacology, based at SickKids and supported by a gift from Mr. Garry Hurvitz, is a collaborative program between the hospital’s departments of psychiatry and pharmacy. It is meant to build expertise and capacity in the field of child and youth mental health pharmacy, an area that is currently under resourced. In this role, Hannah, co-supervised by Dr. Beth Sproule, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Dr. Elia Abi-Jaoude, psychiatrist at SickKids, provides clinical pharmacy services to children and youth, including medication reconciliations, developing pharmaceutical care plans, and educating patients and their parents about their medications.

At the same time, as a student in the MScPhm program, Hannah is advancing her skills in research, teaching, and leadership. She will also be undertaking a research project particularly relevant to her patient population – understanding the information about anti-depressants found on TikTok.

Graduate research explores how youth access medication information

Hannah’s research project is directly inspired by the youth she sees in her clinical practice. In talking with her patients, she learned that many teens search for information about their medications on TikTok, a social media platform that allows users to share short videos, instead of asking a pharmacist or using a more conventional search engine.

“Our patients are telling us that they are looking up medications on the app, which obviously piques my interest as a pharmacist who is supposed to be providing information on medications to these patients,” says Hannah. “I became really curious about what my patients are actually seeing on the app when they search for information about their medications.”

“These kids have their whole lives ahead of them, and if we can intervene and give them the best possible care early on, we have this unique opportunity to make a huge difference in their life as they move through their teenage years and then into adulthood."

Her project, which she aims to start soon, will describe the themes and messages about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), the most prescribed type of antidepressant for youth, that are found in TikTok content. She will also explore how TikTok users perceive and interact with that content.

“We don’t really have a good idea of what’s out there right now. Our patients tell us they do this, but we don’t know what they’re actually seeing or how that impacts their attitudes or experiences toward medications,” says Hannah.

“This project will be a good first step to understand what kids are seeing about SSRIs on the app, and from there we can decide what the next step is to take and how to tailor our care to this population. For example, are there common misconceptions that are prevalent on the app that clinicians should prioritize when they discuss these medications with youth?”

Hannah says that working in the field of mental health presents challenges – particularly in transitioning patients to outpatient settings where waitlists for programs and providers can be long. Nonetheless, she enjoys working with youth and providing care at this critical time of life.

“These kids have their whole lives ahead of them, and if we can intervene and give them the best possible care early on, we have this unique opportunity to make a huge difference in their life as they move through their teenage years and then into adulthood,” says Hannah. “It’s very rewarding when you see someone’s mental health improve during the time they are receiving care with us.”

Learn more about the Master of Science in Pharmacy program

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