Max Pemberton presents The Great ADHD Myth?, and the Channel 4 documentary concludes that ADHD is a social construct rather than a medical condition. It is due to air on 18 August. The programme enters a debate already marked by rising diagnosis rates, private assessments and questions about who is getting treatment.
Max Pemberton and ADHD
Pemberton, an NHS psychiatrist, says schools should adapt to support a wider range of children rather than medicating them into fitting a restrictive norm. That view sits at the centre of a film aimed at viewers who are dealing with disputed diagnoses, or who have had assessments but not taken treatment.
He probes the rise in ADHD diagnoses in the documentary, which focuses on how the label is being used and what it means in practice. The film’s premise is simple enough: if ADHD is being applied more widely, the next question is who benefits from that wider use and who is left unsure what the diagnosis now means.
Marios Adamou and private assessments
Dr Marios Adamou said people are increasingly seeking an ADHD diagnosis without pursuing treatment. He said some now regard ADHD as an identity, rather than a disorder
, and said poor quality private assessments can lead people to believe they have a condition needing treatment
.
Adamou said there has been a growth in complaints against NHS doctors when they reject low quality assessments. He also said 50% of child patients did not pursue treatment after diagnosis, and that he has seen a similar pattern among adult patients in his clinic. Some patients, he said, seek low, non-therapeutic doses of medication instead.
He said most ADHD assessment in the UK is now provided by the private sector. In his view, that expansion is pushing the concept toward a point where it risks becoming meaningless, even as he says there is still thought to be underdiagnosis.
Dinesh Bhugra on diagnosis
Prof Dinesh Bhugra said there has certainly been a splurge of diagnosis, and we don’t know why that is
. He said the programme raises the question of why now, and why this?
and said his fear is that normal human responses are being medicalised.
Bhugra added that the label can give clinicians power and can give people a label that allows them to feel they have certain privileges or gives them certain cachet in society. The documentary leaves that argument in view without resolving how much of the rise reflects greater recognition and how much reflects overuse.
For people seeking assessment, the practical issue is immediate: a diagnosis is only the start of the process, and the next decision often turns on whether the assessment is credible enough for NHS doctors to accept or challenge it. The programme is scheduled to air on 18 August, when viewers will see what evidence Pemberton uses to support his conclusion that ADHD is a social construct rather than a medical condition.
