A peer has claimed ADHD is a “fashionable disorder” and that many diagnosed with the condition are “not that ill or not ill at all”.
Baroness Claire Fox, who used to be a member of the Brexit Party, spoke about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in a debate in the House of Lords.
She said there was an 18% rise in ADHD prescriptions between April 2023 and March 2024.
Many NHS trusts have stopped diagnosing ADHD and prescribing medication to adults, and there are long waiting lists for children to get appointments.
However, private clinics can offer diagnosis and medication on the NHS in some cases – although there have been questions raised about the robustness of their practices.
Baroness Fox said: “Isn’t it tragic that so many people want their children, or want themselves, to have these drugs in order to feel that they can cope? When they’re actually, really, not that ill, or not ill at all, but they’ve got the label.
Peers were debating the Mental Health Bill.
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The peer claimed “therapeutic experts, councillors and psychological practitioners” are becoming “diagnostically trigger happy in labelling people as ill”.
She said this has lead to “clamouring” – especially with young people – for “pills to help them with the cope with the travails of life”.
Baroness Fox claimed to have witnessed a debate where young people became “quite aggressive”, with the peer saying they “demanded treatment”.
ADHD is the fashionable disorder of the day”, adding that “it’s often diagnosed promiscuously”.
The comments come after Ofqual released figures in November for the number of pupils given extra time to complete their exams – which can be due to youngsters being diagnosed with disorders like ADHD – showing that the number being given an extra 15 minutes rising by 42% between 2018/19 and 2022/23. The issue was more prevalent in independent schools (39% of pupils in 2022/23) than in non-selective state schools (24% in 2022/23).
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Baroness Elaine Murphy, an independent peer and former psychiatrist, told the Lords: “There’s no doubt that there is massive overdiagnosis of things that are called mental disorder but are distress and need a different sort of approach.”
She added: “There are a lot of websites which are utter rubbish, and are encouraging people to pay money to see psychotherapy, psychotherapists and other counsellors to see what’s the matter with them, and pay money so other people can put money in their pockets for doing not much.”
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Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, spoke to the Politics Hub with Sophy Ridge about the growing number of people being signed off work with mental health issues.
The cabinet minister said there were “a lot of complicated things going on here” – before welcoming the reduction in stigma around mental health issues.
However, Ms Kendall said “there are stresses and strains in everyday life – and that is just life”.
She shared how she went on a visit to a supermarket where the management said there was a mixture of people with genuine health problems, and then some people needing to understand that “this is the world of work”.
