NHS trust warns that people with ADHD in England are facing gaps in care caused by difficulties with private assessments

Waiting lists for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in England are being clogged by patients returning to NHS care after difficulties with private assessments, a trust has warned.

The major NHS trust said people referred by GPs to private clinics using health service funding were increasingly asking to be transferred back after care stalled.

UK had highest relative increase of five countries in study, with 20-fold rise in proportion of women over 25 using it

The proportion of people in the UK on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication has tripled in the past decade, with a 20-fold increase among women aged 25 and over, a study shows.

Researchers led by the University of Oxford examined electronic health records from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK to estimate the use of ADHD medication among adults and children aged three and above.

Use of private providers, poor training and inadequate regulation mean obtaining care has become a ‘wild west’

• NHS ADHD spending over budget by £164m as unregulated clinics boom

When Leigh White remembers her brother Ryan, she thinks of a boy of extraordinary ability who “won five scholarships at 11” including a coveted place at Bancroft’s, a private school in London. He was, she said, “super bright, witty, personable, generous and kind”.

Ryan killed himself on 12 May 2024. A report written after his death acknowledged significant shortcomings in the support he received while seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Exclusive: Total spending in England expected to double existing budgets, with funding for private providers rising threefold

• ‘He tried so hard to get help’: the tragic results of NHS right-to-choose for ADHD patients

The NHS is overspending by £164m a year on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services, with an increasing amount going to unregulated private assessments, a Guardian investigation has found.

Analysis shows that total spending on NHS ADHD services is expected to be more than double existing budgets. Further data shows the amount spent on private ADHD services has more than tripled over three years.

From dark, sound-proofed rooms to clever storage solutions, families with autism and ADHD are finding inspired ways to adjust their environments

In the middle of Cherie Clonan’s bright Melbourne home sits a room in total darkness “for our son to retreat to”, she says. “It’s all black in there. You wouldn’t believe it’s the same home!”

The space, lined with sound-blocking panels, is a sanctuary for her autistic son: a quiet cocoon for decompressing after school. “He loves to go in there to game online with his mates,” Clonan says.

Diagnosed autistic at 37, Clonan lives in a weatherboard cottage with her husband, David, and her two neurodivergent teenagers. Since buying the house five years ago, she has been reshaping it around their needs. “Our family’s split half-half – 50% sensory-seek versus sensory-avoidant,” she says. “I chase light. I love light-filled everything. But my son really is the opposite.”

Study of 8,300 US children suggests social media may be contributing to a rise in ADHD diagnoses

Increased use of social media by children damages their concentration levels and may be contributing to an increase in cases of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to a study.

The peer-reviewed report monitored the development of more than 8,300 US-based children from the age of 10 to 14 and linked social media use to “increased inattention symptoms”.

Some say it’s overdiagnosis, others say it’s greater recognition. But it’s clear we must think about how our society is impacting human development

• Gabor Maté is the author of The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture

Does the rise in diagnoses of ADHD mean that normal feelings are being “over-pathologised”? The UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, seems to suspect so. He is said to be so concerned about a sharp rise in the number of people claiming sickness benefits that he has ordered a clinical review of the diagnosis of mental health conditions, and autism and ADHD.

I was diagnosed with ADHD (ADD, as it was then most often called) decades ago, in my early 50s. As I wrote in my book on the subject, Scattered Minds, it “seemed to explain many of my behaviour patterns, thought processes, childish emotional reactions, my workaholism and other addictive tendencies, the sudden eruptions of bad temper and complete irrationality, the conflicts in my marriage and my Jekyll and Hyde ways of relating to my children … It also explained my propensity to bump into doorways, hit my head on shelves, drop objects, and brush close to people before I notice they are there.”

Gabor Maté is an international public speaker and retired physician. His most recent book is The Myth of Normal: Illness, Health and Healing in a Toxic Culture

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It contains a stain-remover pen, silent fidget toy and a few Band-Aids, and Matilda Boseley never leaves home without it

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