The number of people taking ADHD medication is at a record high \u2013 and the NHS is feeling the strain as it tries to diagnose and treat the condition.<\/p>\n
Since 2015, the number of patients in England prescribed drugs to treat ADHD has nearly trebled, and BBC research suggests that it would take eight years to assess all the adults on waiting lists.<\/p>\n
Last year, ADHD was the second-most viewed condition on the NHS website. Concern about this rising demand has prompted the NHS in England to set up a taskforce.<\/p>\n
So what\u2019s going on and where will it end? Is ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) becoming more common? Are we just getting better at recognising it? Or is it being over-diagnosed?<\/p>\n
It turns out it\u2019s not just you and I who have been taken by surprise \u2013 so have the experts.<\/p>\n
Dr Ulrich M\u00fcller-Sedgwick, the ADHD champion for the UK\u2019s Royal College of Psychiatrists, says: \u201cNobody predicted that the demand would go up so massively over the last 15 years, and especially the last three years.\u201d He\u2019s been running adult ADHD clinics since 2007. At the time, he says, there were just a few of them.<\/p>\n
ADHD is a fairly novel condition \u2013 it\u2019s only 16 years since the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) officially recognised it in adults. When considering whether it might keep increasing, Dr M\u00fcller-Sedgwick argues that there are two different concepts to consider: prevalence and incidence.<\/p>\n
Prevalence is the percentage of people who have ADHD \u2013 Dr M\u00fcller-Sedgwick predicts that will stay pretty steady at 3 to 4% of adults in the UK.<\/p>\n
Incidence is the number of new cases \u2013 people getting a diagnosis. That\u2019s where we\u2019re seeing an increase. He explains: \u201cWhat has changed is the number of patients we are diagnosing. It\u2019s almost like the more we diagnose, the more word spreads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof Emily Simonoff echoes this. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the King\u2019s Maudsley Partnership for Children and Young People. She thinks about 5 to 7% of children have ADHD in the UK \u2013 and says: \u201cIt’s pretty similar across the world, that\u2019s been consistent and it hasn\u2019t actually risen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof Simonoff agrees that there\u2019s been a \u201csteep incline\u201d in people coming forward for assessment since the pandemic \u2013 but says this comes after years of \u201clong-term under-recognition\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
She points to statistics on ADHD drugs. She would expect about 3 to 4% of children in the UK to need ADHD medication, but in reality, only 1 to 2% are actually using it. She thinks this shows that we are still underestimating the scale of the issue.<\/p>\n
Prof Simonoff explains: \u201cI think that’s an important starting point for when we say, \u2018My goodness, why are we seeing all these children now \u2013 are we over-identifying ADHD?\u2019 We have under-diagnosed or under-recognised ADHD in the UK for many, many years.\u201d<\/p>\n
In other words, we can expect more people to be diagnosed with ADHD now because services are playing catch-up.<\/p>\n
Thea Stein is chief executive of health think tank the Nuffield Trust. She\u2019s got her own description for the recent increase in demand: \u201cthe Hump\u201d. She says: \u201cDiagnosis or desire to be diagnosed has risen because of knowledge and visibility \u2013 [it\u2019s as] simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Stein, the most immediate task is getting through the Hump, assessing the huge backlog of people on ADHD waiting lists. Then, in the longer-term, she thinks society will get better at spotting ADHD sooner in children. She hopes this will mean that they get better support from an early age, and take some of the pressure off adult services.<\/p>\n
She says: \u201cI have real optimism that we will come through this period of time to a much better place as a society. What I don’t have optimism about is that this is a quick fix.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADHD might be a new concept, but people struggling to concentrate is an old problem.<\/p>\n
In 1798, Scottish doctor Sir Alexander Crichton wrote about a \u201cdisease of attention\u201d with \u201can unnatural degree of mental restlessness.\u201d<\/p>\n
He explained: \u201cWhen people are affected in this manner\u2026 they say they have the fidgets.\u201d<\/p>\n
ADHD goes beyond problems concentrating or being hyperactive, though. People with it can struggle regulating their emotions and impulses. It\u2019s been linked to substance abuse and financial difficulties as well as higher rates of crime and even car crashes.<\/p>\n
All the experts I speak to firmly agree on one point: it is much better for someone with ADHD to be diagnosed and treated as early as possible.<\/p>\n
Dr M\u00fcller-Sedgwick says there\u2019s a \u201crisk of really bad outcomes\u201d. But he lights up when he describes how diagnosis and treatment can transform lives.<\/p>\n
He says: \u201cI have seen so many patients getting better, getting back into work or back into education. I have seen parents who were going through family court proceedings who were able to be better parents.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s why we work in this field, it’s a really rewarding part of mental health to work in.\u201d<\/p>\n
Currently, ADHD treatment revolves around medication and therapy, but there are other options on the horizon.<\/p>\n
A patch worn by children with ADHD on their foreheads during sleep \u2013 connected to a device that sends stimulating pulses into the brain \u2013 is on sale in the United States. It\u2019s not prescribed in the UK, but academics here and in the US are working on clinical trials looking into it.<\/p>\n
Prof Katya Rubia is a professor of cognitive neuroscience at King\u2019s College London \u2013 as she puts it, \u201cMy work over the last 30 years or so is basically imaging ADHD, understanding what is different in the brains [of people with ADHD].\u201d<\/p>\n
She explains that certain parts of ADHD brains, including the frontal lobe, are slightly smaller and also less active. Prof Rubia is trying to kickstart those areas of the brain, and is working on a study looking at the trigeminal nerve \u2013 it goes directly to the brain stem and can increase activity in the frontal lobe.<\/p>\n
She says: \u201cThis is all very new. If we find an effect, we have a new treatment.\u201d While that is yet to be proven, she does add: \u201cIf everything goes well, it could be on the market in two years.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, the hope is that, in the not-too-distant future, there will be more ways to treat ADHD without medication. In the meantime, though, the challenge is getting through that \u201chump\u201d of people waiting to be assessed \u2013 with the belief that, over time, the increase in diagnoses should lessen.<\/p>\n
See BBC Action Line for support on issues around ADHD<\/p>\n
Read ADHD advice from the NHS<\/p>\n
Top picture: Getty Images<\/p>\n
BBC InDepth is the new home on the website and app for the best analysis and expertise from our top journalists. Under a distinctive new brand, we\u2019ll bring you fresh perspectives that challenge assumptions, and deep reporting on the biggest issues to help you make sense of a complex world. And we\u2019ll be showcasing thought-provoking content from across BBC Sounds and iPlayer too. We\u2019re starting small but thinking big, and we want to know what you think – you can send us your feedback by clicking on the button below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The number of people taking ADHD medication is at a record high \u2013 and the NHS is feeling the strain as it tries to diagnose and treat the condition. Since 2015, the number of patients in England prescribed drugs to treat ADHD has nearly trebled, and BBC research suggests that it would take eight years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}