Dr Max Pemberton says the great adhd myth documentary is looking at a system where ADHD has moved from something “only occasionally made” after careful assessment to something increasingly demanded and dispensed. Channel 4 has commissioned The Great ADHD Myth?, and the film lands as NHS data shows a 200% increase in referrals for an ADHD diagnosis between 2020 and 2025.
The 1x60 documentary does not argue that ADHD traits are fake. It argues something harder: that the traits undeniably exist, while the label may not always be the best explanation for why people are struggling. That is the pressure point for families, schools and clinicians, because the biggest medicated group is boys aged 10-14.
Dr Max Pemberton and NHS data
Dr Max Pemberton is a full-time NHS psychiatrist, and his own framing gives the film its businesslike edge: the question is not whether people are struggling, but why the system is reaching for one answer so often. His statement puts the diagnosis surge in plain terms and links it to modern life rather than a single clinic or one policy change.
The 200% increase between 2020 and 2025 is the clearest number in the announcement. It suggests a referral pipeline that has grown far faster than casual public debate usually admits, which is why the documentary is built around diagnosis, medication and the institutions deciding how quickly children move through them.
Dr Iona Heath and Dr Sami Timimi
Dr Iona Heath, the former President of the Royal College of General Practitioners, says, “It is certainly not a medical condition as far as I’m concerned”. Dr Sami Timimi, a consultant child and adolescent psychiatrist and psychotherapist, adds, “We’ve replaced corporal punishment with giving [children] a pill”. Those are not throwaway lines; they show how far apart the expert view in the film is on whether ADHD is the problem or the response.
The documentary also asks whether the real issue is the environment children are growing up in, and whether current health and schooling systems are flexible enough for a wider range of personalities and behaviours. That matters because the film is not choosing between denial and certainty; it is testing whether the present framework is too narrow for the scale of referrals now moving through it.
Boy, medication and lifestyle
Max meets a young family who want to see whether holistic lifestyle changes can eliminate one boy’s use of ADHD medication. Over several weeks, the experiment replaces medication with sporting and creative activities, more time outdoors, and less access to screens and ultra processed foods.
That structure gives the film its practical test. If the changes make a difference, the documentary will have shown a route families can discuss with clinicians; if they do not, the case for medication stays in place. Either way, the boy’s experience turns the debate from abstract diagnosis politics into a question about what actually helps a child function day to day.
Channel 4 and Minnow Films
Tim Hancock says, “Max Pemberton, along with Bafta-winning director Xavier Alford, have taken a science-led approach to look at one of the biggest health stories of our times, with fascinating results.” Liam Humphreys adds that Max Pemberton’s investigation into the rise in diagnoses produces “startling revelations” and a film that will make viewers think differently about medicating children.
Minnow Films is producing the 1x60 for Channel 4, with Leah Green as Senior Producer and Xavier Alford directing. My read is simple: this is the kind of documentary that should force a useful argument, not a polite one, because it starts with a referral surge, puts a child’s medication under a microscope, and leaves the audience with a direct question about how much of ADHD is diagnosis and how much is the world around it.
