Reality Check: the ADHD debate we’re not allowed to have

Reality Check: the ADHD debate we’re not allowed to have

Author: The Spectator August 27, 2026 Duration: 14:56

The backlash to Channel 4’s The Great ADHD Myth has reignited a fierce debate over how we diagnose ADHD – and whether that debate itself is becoming impossible to have.

Michael Simmons looks at the extraordinary rise in diagnoses, the gap between recorded cases and underlying prevalence, and asks whether we are increasingly medicalising normal variations in behaviour.

Is Britain finally recognising a vast amount of unmet need – or has diagnosis begun to serve a social as well as a medical function?

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Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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