The number of Australians receiving medication for ADHD has surged by almost 300 per cent over the past decade, according to the latest data from the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
In 2022–2023 alone, nearly 470,000 people were prescribed ADHD medication.
The figure has sparked a heated debate over whether the condition is being overdiagnosed, underdiagnosed, or simply misunderstood.
Is ADHD a ‘fashion diagnosis’ or finally being taken seriously?
On Monday morning’s episode of The Briefing, Professor Dave Coghill, Chair of Developmental Mental Health at the University of Melbourne and President of the Australasian ADHD Professionals Association, said the answer isn’t black and white.
“It’s both,” Coghill said.
“ADHD for many, many years, and currently still—is an issue that goes unrecognised in a lot of people,” he said.
While diagnosis rates have increased, especially among adult women, Professor Coghill said there remains a large number of individuals who still struggle to access proper care and assessment.
At the same time, he acknowledged concerns about the quality of some recent diagnoses.
“At the moment I think that there may be some people who have been given a diagnosis of ADHD who may not meet all of the full criteria, but there are still many young people out there with ADHD who haven’t got a diagnosis,” he added.
Coghill said social media has influenced how people see ADHD, and a recent article suggested the rise in diagnoses might be partly due to social contagion, even calling ADHD a possible “fashion” diagnosis.
“ADHD is a real problem for people with ADHD… but people—young people in particular—may be misunderstanding what ADHD is from some of the communications that they’ve got.”
He warned against overly simplistic narratives: “Anyone who sits at one side of the argument or the other is going to make mistakes and is going to be misleading.”
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