The former president of the Royal College of General Practitioners has said she would “ban the label ADHD”, and that it should be treated as a “social construct” instead of a neurodevelopmental condition.
Speaking to The Telegraph ahead of the airing of the Channel 4 documentary, The Great ADHD Myth?, Dr Iona Heath criticised over-diagnosis of ADHD and argued there is no scientific evidence that those diagnosed with it have neurological differences.
Earlier this year, then-Health Secretary Wes Streeting said there was an “overdiagnosis” of mental health conditions with “too many people being written off”, and launched a review into the rising demand for mental health, ADHD and autism services. The review is ongoing.
What does the UK data show?
The Lancet and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) put the UK rate of childhood ADHD at five per cent, compared to three to four per cent for adults.
Some experts believe there are similar rates in other countries, but that only a fraction have been diagnosed.
One study found ADHD diagnoses increased in the UK from 2000 to 2018. By 2018, the highest rates were in boys aged 10 to 16 – 3.5 per cent had been diagnosed and 2.4 per cent were on medication.
Back in 2000, those numbers were 1.4 per cent and 0.6 per cent.
Another survey, published in 2018, found that 3.62 per cent of boys and 0.85 per cent of girls had ADHD. The researchers studied 10,438 children between five and 15 years.
It is estimated that one in 100 children in the UK has autism spectrum disorder (ASD), with boys three to four times more likely to be diagnosed.
How do ADHD rates in the UK compare with other countries?
In the United States, 11.4 per cent of children aged three to 17 years was diagnosed with ADHD in 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that year. The number totalled seven million, one million higher than 2016 figures.
ADHD rates for children in Canada vary from 6.9 per cent to 8.6 per cent for children aged four to 17.
In Europe, a 2023 French study indicated 3.68 per cent of children (800,000) have ADHD compared with 5.5 per cent of adults (1.4 million).
In Spain, estimates of ADHD prevalence in children range from 5.5 per cent to 6.8 per cent.
Analysis of 15 studies in Italy in 2018 found an average of 2.9 per cent of children had ADHD.
A German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (2014-2017) found that around 4.4 per cent of children and adolescents were diagnosed with ADHD.
How about autism?
Around one in 31 (3.2 per cent) children aged eight in the US had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), according to CDC estimates.
In Canada, approximately 1 in 50 (2 per cent) children aged one to 17 were diagnosed with autism, according to 2019 data from the Public Health Agency of Canada.
In France, one child in 100 is born with ASD, according to the charity Fondation de France.
Autism rates in Spain have varied by region from 0.6 per cent to two per cent.
In Italy, the estimated autism rate for children aged seven to nine is about 1 in 77 children, according to a 2023 study.
In Germany, the number of autism diagnoses rose from 0.22 per cent of all under-24-year-olds in 2006 to 0.38 per cent in 2012.
What is the Government looking at?
The Government review, which is ongoing, is led by Professor Peter Fonagy, national clinical adviser on children and young people’s mental health. It comes as ministers try to tackle the growing welfare bill.
The final report is set to examine why people are turning to the NHS and other services for support, the role of diagnosis in accessing help, and how effective current ways of tackling the problems are.
Streeting, who was Health Secretary at time of commission, said the report must look at the issues of rising poor mental health, ADHD and autism diagnosis “through a strictly clinical lens”.
“That’s the only way we can ensure everyone gets timely access to accurate diagnosis and effective support,” he said.
An interim report, published in March this year, identified rising diagnosis rates as an issue alongside people with ADHD and autism failing to get the support they need. The final report is set to focus on how to make more support available that is “less dependent on diagnostic thresholds” and “more responsive to functional need”.
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