Patient says pharmacists she went to were suspicious because Vyvanse is a stimulant, causing her the ‘most dehumanising medical experience’ of her life
Emma* says she was made to feel “like a drug addict” for simply trying to access medication for her ADHD.
When she was prescribed Vyvanse in June, she was relieved to realise she had found a treatment that would make it easier to live with the developmental disorder that affects the brain’s executive functioning.
Continue reading...Increase of 18% in a year attributed to more diagnoses, especially among younger women
A record number of people in England are taking medication used to treat ADHD, data shows, underlining a surge in the number of diagnoses.
Almost 278,000 patients in England were prescribed central nervous system stimulants (CNS) and drugs to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) between April 2023 and March 2024, latest NHS Business Services Authority data shows.
Continue reading...Campaigner Marsha Martin says ‘there is a lot of stigma within black community’ that prevents issues being discussed
Cultural barriers are preventing black children with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) from accessing the help they need, the founder of a UK campaign for better support has said.
Hundreds of children with special educational needs (Send) routinely wait for more than a year to get help, as local authorities across England struggle to meet unprecedented need in a dire financial climate. A Guardian investigation last month found more than 20,000 children were waiting longer than the 20-week limit to be issued with an education, health and care plan (EHCP) that details the support they require.
Continue reading...Taskforce will aim to improve care for people living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
The NHS in England is to launch a major review of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) services amid concerns about a rise in diagnoses.
ADHD is a condition that affects people’s behaviour. People with ADHD can seem restless, may have trouble concentrating and could act on impulse, according to the NHS.
Continue reading...Traits associated with the neurodevelopmental disorder could have helped early humans when foraging for food
Traits common to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), such as distractibility or impulsivity, might have been an evolutionary advantage for our ancestors by improving their tactics when foraging for food, researchers have said.
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with symptoms including impulsiveness, disorganisation and difficulty focusing. While estimates of prevalence have varied, diagnoses have been rising in many countries, including the UK.
Continue reading...Greens senator Jordon Steele-John says people with condition struggle with ‘cost, wait time and stigma’
Assessment and support services for people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder will be the subject of parliamentary scrutiny after the Australian Senate backed a Greens proposal for an inquiry on the issue.
The Senate community affairs references committee will examine barriers to “consistent, timely and best practice assessment” of ADHD and related services, including the adequacy of access to diagnosis and support, biases inherent in ADHD assessment and research, and the cost of medication.
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Continue reading...Warnings of ‘great cost’ to individuals, workplaces and the economy as people struggle to access diagnosis and treatment
ADHD awareness hassoared among women in the UK in the past year, but waiting times and the dearth of clinical awareness are leaving people awaiting diagnosis in a perilous position, leading experts have warned.
Dr Max Davie, a consultant paediatrician and co-founder of ADHD UK, said that people talking openly about their diagnoses – such as the Loose Women presenter Nadia Sawalha – had led to more people seeking referrals for the condition.
Continue reading...Organisations want to recruit more women with autism, dyslexia and ADHD to work in cybersecurity roles
The British spy agency GCHQ and weapons manufacturer BAE Systems have issued an appeal to attract more neurodiverse women to work for them in cybersecurity jobs.
The employers are actively seeking women with autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for cybersecurity roles to address gaps in their workforces.
Continue reading...FDA says supply does not meet demand and drug-maker says backorders are due to ‘significant rise’ in prescription rates
An increase in prescriptions and an ongoing labor crunch have helped contribute to a nationwide shortage of Adderall across the US.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday confirmed the shortage of the drug, used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy. The FDA said Teva, the largest manufacturer, is facing “ongoing intermittent manufacturing delays”.
Continue reading...Social media and many other facets of modern life are destroying our ability to concentrate. We need to reclaim our minds while we still can
When he was nine years old, my godson Adam developed a brief but freakishly intense obsession with Elvis Presley. He took to singing Jailhouse Rock at the top of his voice with all the low crooning and pelvis-jiggling of the King himself. One day, as I tucked him in, he looked at me very earnestly and asked: “Johann, will you take me to Graceland one day?” Without really thinking, I agreed. I never gave it another thought, until everything had gone wrong.
Ten years later, Adam was lost. He had dropped out of school when he was 15, and he spent almost all his waking hours alternating blankly between screens – a blur of YouTube, WhatsApp and porn. (I’ve changed his name and some minor details to preserve his privacy.) He seemed to be whirring at the speed of Snapchat, and nothing still or serious could gain any traction in his mind. During the decade in which Adam had become a man, this fracturing seemed to be happening to many of us. Our ability to pay attention was cracking and breaking. I had just turned 40, and wherever my generation gathered, we would lament our lost capacity for concentration. I still read a lot of books, but with each year that passed, it felt more and more like running up a down escalator. Then one evening, as we lay on my sofa, each staring at our own ceaselessly shrieking screens, I looked at him and felt a low dread. “Adam,” I said softly, “let’s go to Graceland.” I reminded him of the promise I had made. I could see that the idea of breaking this numbing routine ignited something in him, but I told him there was one condition he had to stick to if we went. He had to switch his phone off during the day. He swore he would.
Continue reading...Company says adapting recruitment processes for neurodiverse groups disproportionately affected by unemployment has led to increased innovation
Talking to people can be difficult for Rishabh Birla, but his last job demanded he did a lot of it. He has autism and finds making eye contact uncomfortable. For Birla, the rules of conversation are puzzling and he sometimes veers off course, alarming the other person.
A 25-year-old postgraduate, Birla had been working at a cosmetics startup in Thane, not far from Mumbai. “The job involved communicating with different clients to keep track of their orders. It was exhausting to interact with so people every day,” he says.
Continue reading...Prize-winning author Camilla Pang talks about her autism and ADHD diagnoses and her desire to challenge myths about neurodiversity
This month Camilla Pang won the Royal Society book prize for her debut, Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships. She has a PhD in bioinformatics from UCL and works as a postdoctoral researcher. Dr Pang was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at the age of eight and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder at 26.
Why did you decide to write this book?
I inadvertently wrote the book in my PhD thesis on bioinformatics, and my supervisor, bless her, said this is great, but it doesn’t belong here. One of the things people on the autistic spectrum do is organise our world in a way that makes sense to us using objects and sequences. For me, those sequences involved looking at the fundamentals of matter, and what that meant in terms of science. Even if I was just kicking a pile of leaves, I would do it repetitively in order to find the laws about how things react, and how they can be predicted. So from kicking leaves to Post-it notes to eventually reading about science, I constructed a map to navigate the world. Over time, it became bigger and notebooks piled up, so I ended up with a piece of work that I thought might be useful to someone else. And that’s the ultimate goal, isn’t it? You want to connect with people.
The 18-year-old autism campaigner and international children’s peace prize finalist on why diagnosis of the condition for girls urgently needs improving
Each morning Siena Castellon synchronises her morning routine to music with the same 30-minute playlist. Different songs act as time markers. “The trick is to choose music you love and to listen to the same playlist every day,” explains the teenager.
When Wonderwall by Oasis comes on she knows she should be brushing her teeth. By the time Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey is playing she is walking out the door.
Continue reading...