It's likely ADHD is being overdiagnosed in young people

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-04-13 01:00

Australia; NSW; QLD

Human-brain By Hugh Guiney, CC BY-SA 3.0

Aussie scientists brought together 334 previously published studies of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children and adolescents, and say it's likely the condition is being overdiagnosed. They found evidence that ADHD diagnoses have increased in 45 studies, while 83 studies showed increasing use of drugs to treat ADHD. Twenty-five studies suggested most additional diagnoses are at the milder end of the ADHD spectrum, but just five studies weighed up the pros and cons of labelling kids with milder forms of the condition as having ADHD, and using drugs to treat them. Whether young people with milder or borderline symptoms are being harmed by an ADHD diagnosis and treatment should be the subject of further study, the researchers conclude.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Network Open

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Sydney, Bond University

Funder: This study was supported by program grant 1113532 and Centre for Research Excellence grant 1104136 from Wiser Healthcare, funded by the NHMRC.

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