{"id":596754,"date":"2026-08-18T06:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596754\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T06:30:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T06:30:10","slug":"rising-number-of-people-seeking-adhd-diagnosis-without-treatment-say-experts-attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/596754\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising number of people seeking ADHD diagnosis without treatment, say experts | Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"

People are increasingly seeking to an obtain an ADHD diagnosis without pursuing treatment, according to experts who have called for more research to understand why.<\/p>\n

Some people now regard ADHD<\/a> as \u201can identity, rather than a disorder\u201d, with the result that many obtain assessments from poor quality private providers, which lead them to \u201cbelieve they have a condition needing treatment\u201d, said the psychiatrist Dr Marios Adamou, the founder of the UK Adult ADHD Network.<\/p>\n

This has resulted in a growth in complaints against NHS<\/a> doctors when they are forced to reject low quality assessments, he added.<\/p>\n

Adamou had seen recent figures showing that 50% of child patients did not pursue treatment after diagnosis, and observed a similar trend among adult patients in his clinic.<\/p>\n

Some patients seek low, non-therapeutic doses of medication instead. \u201cA lot of people would benefit from having amphetamines. You feel better, you can focus better, you can do more. But there hasn\u2019t been a debate that this country should be cognitively augmented to increase productivity with stimulants,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do people feel they can identify with these conditions? They are manifestations of a societal problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adamou was speaking ahead of a new Channel 4 documentary airing on 18 August titled The Great ADHD Myth?<\/a>. It is presented by the NHS psychiatrist Dr Max Pemberton, who concludes that ADHD is a \u201csocial construct\u201d rather than a medical condition, and that schools should adapt to better support a wider range of children rather than medicating them into fitting into a restrictive norm.<\/p>\n

A mother and son, Shauna and Mason, who feature in The Great ADHD Myth? documentary. Photograph: Minnow Productions<\/p>\n

Adamou said that ADHD was both a social construct and a brain disorder. Brain differences are well established through research, and the diagnostic criteria has undergone \u201ca lot of scientific scrutiny and validation\u201d, he said, but added that in recent years \u201cthe ADHD concept has been expanded so much, it\u2019s risking becoming meaningless \u2026 it\u2019s socially constructed now, it\u2019s something different than what it actually is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said this phenomenon was fuelled by \u201cchallenges with the quality and the regulation of the [ADHD services] market\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of the assessment in the UK is now provided by the private sector,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any other medical condition where the private sector provides as much care \u2026 When you have private providers providing the majority of care in a market system with a diagnosis that is commoditised, and attracts stimulants, you may have issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite this, he stressed that there was thought to be underdiagnosis of ADHD. Poor quality diagnoses have created \u201ca double stigma\u201d for many people with the condition. \u201cNot only do you have stigma because you have ADHD, but also there\u2019s stigma about whether you have real ADHD,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Prof Dinesh Bhugra, the former head of the Royal College of Psychiatrists who features in the documentary, agreed that \u201cthere has certainly been a splurge of diagnosis, and we don\u2019t know why that is\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe question is why now, and why this? What is it providing? My fear is we medicalise normal human responses because it gives us the power as clinicians and it gives people the label which allows them to either feel they\u2019ve got certain privileges or it gives them certain cachet in society.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the documentary, he shares his concerns about the growing role of profiteering private companies supplying services that the NHS is under too much strain to provide. ADHD assessment was \u201can easy way to make money\u201d for private companies, he said, adding: \u201cTheir responsibility is to the shareholders, not the general public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bhugra feared that the UK\u2019s current approach was an American import, where the DSM [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders]\u2019s checklist-style approach to assessment reflected the demands of insurance companies, and a culture of \u201chealth is a commodity and you can buy it and sell it\u201d.<\/p>\n

He agreed with the documentary\u2019s message that services should be reformed to take a more holistic approach, bringing together the social, biological and psychological facts of ADHD rather than emphasising medical intervention.<\/p>\n

Jessica Lister, a clinical director and consultant nurse at the private provider Care ADHD, feared that the documentary\u2019s message could be harmful. \u201cDismissing ADHD as a social construct doesn\u2019t just trivialise an established clinical condition \u2013 it perpetuates the inequalities faced by people with ADHD across education, health, employment and the justice system,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe question here isn\u2019t whether ADHD is a real medical problem \u2013 it\u2019s whether systems respond early enough, consistently enough and fairly enough to prevent avoidable harm \u2026 The real problems are long waits, inequitable access, inconsistent quality and too little joined-up support across health, education, care and employment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Pattison, the chief executive of Care ADHD, said that it was important to differentiate between private providers, adding that his organisation\u2019s clinical governance was as strong as the NHS ADHD and mental health services he had run for 15 years. \u201cProfit should never come before clinical quality. But efficiency isn\u2019t the enemy of it either,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cStandards need to apply to everyone, not just us. Some NHS trusts have children waiting two, five, even 10 years for an assessment. That\u2019s not safe care, whoever provides it. Some private providers fall short too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Great ADHD Myth? is available to watch and stream on Channel 4<\/a> at 8pm, Tuesday 18 August.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People are increasingly seeking to an obtain an ADHD diagnosis without pursuing treatment, according to experts who have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":596755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-596754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=596754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/596754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=596754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=596754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=596754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}