Panorama Private ADHD clinics exposed

[Youdoyoubabe]

Nothing surprising there really but good to highlight it on national television. Everyone has some characteristics of ADHD.

All medications carry risk. Some a lot more so than others. Steroids are very strong and can be dangerous if misused, yet some people take them every day for chronic lung conditions. Should we stop them? Just let them die? Millions of people are on anti-depressants, they have a lot of side effects too. Shall we take them all off them?

People with ADHD are 5 times more likely to attempt suicide than the rest of the population. These drugs are life-changing and life-saving.

I got 3

@LeanIntoChaos - if you don't mind, would you PM me details of your clinic or any reputable ones you know? I'm in Sussex

Ugh. I have so much to say about this. My brain is bursting.

But one is that, as well as unbelievably long waiting lists, NHS care for neurodiverse conditions and mental health conditions is often very poor. People are misdiagnosed and left unsupported ALL THE TIME. The level of oversight is often low. For example, the NHS prescribed me antipsychotics (a type of drug I had never taken before) over the phone after a 5 minute conversation with a nurse who I've never met before or since in the absence of a specific diagnosis. That didn't go well and no bloody wonder. I had a complaint upheld against a psychiatrist who made a number of inappropriate and incorrect statements during a consultation. That is tip of the iceberg stuff.

I don't want anyone to think it's a case of private bad, NHS good.

It’s a screening questionnaire and not a diagnostic tool. It’s for the individual to help them consider whether they want to proceed.

Me 9 (no adhd)
DS 38 (privately diagnosed, diagnosis accepted by nhs)

Quite.

EVERY reputable NHS expert in the field is saying there is a problem with under diagnosis with the NHS because of the system being chronically under funded and everything suggests that there is internal pressure to 'ration' diagnosis.

That's the thing driving private diagnosis. A lack of trust in the NHS system and a total failure to provide support where it is needed - where it might not be ADHD.

The problems DS is having now age 8 are only going to get worse. It's significant enough for him to have the school actively supporting him but they are also saying he's effectively 'the wrong type of child' and we are being prepared for rejection. That's fucked up.

So we probably will face being dropped from great height and having to navigate the private route which was hard enough before and now will be harder. Remember they think that 90% of private assessments are RIGHT in all this. That's not a small number. Only 10% dodgy. Typically if you go for a physical screening the false positive rate can be a good few %. You have to understand that every time you get some sort of treatment.

Tbh we don't even know if medication is going to be right for DS. What he needs is the support in school more and the option for medication in the future if needed. But we can't even access much of that.

Long term we don't want repeats of what happened to members of my family

Amazing post. Thank you.

Biased reporting.

One side was told about the 'investigation', the other wasn't.

Totally agree with you

"People with ADHD are 5 times more likely to attempt suicide than the rest of the population"

This is one of the points I'm making and why this programme is so important.

If we have numerous people getting shoddy assessments and diagnoses we won't actually know what any of the statistics are.

When ADHD referrals, assessments and diagnoses are growing hugely year after year, there comes a point when people are going to have to stop saying "oh it's just because there's more awareness"

What if there comes the point that the UK has inflated rates of ADHD in comparison to the rest of the world?

Will people then stop making excuses and actually look at what's happening?

Lots of people here on this thread taking it personally thinking the programme is attacking them. It is not. It's a growing scandal of potential over-diagnosis of a complex neurodevelopmental disorder which effects society as a whole to make money

And it increases inequalities across the board.

It's sickening how many people are minimising it.

EVERY reputable NHS expert in the field is saying there is a problem with under diagnosis with the NHS because of the system being chronically under funded and everything suggests that there is internal pressure to 'ration' diagnosis.

That's the thing driving private diagnosis. A lack of trust in the NHS system and a total failure to provide support where it is needed - where it might not be ADHD.

This is important. Especially when the nhs psychiatrist - who knew it was for a documentary - not diagnosing is the point.

Maybe there are problems at either end.

regsrdless, this has just spawned a whole bunch of people viewing adhd as ‘fake’ (and those who have it as ‘liars’) rather than any proper discussion of how it’s assessed and diagnosed.

That’s deeply irresponsible. As if there isn’t enough ‘just an excuse for badly behaved children/poor parenting’ and ‘just attention seeking/lazy/useless adults’.

For parents, it's not a choice between using the NHS and using a private clinic. It's a choice between waiting 3 years for NHS diagnosis, and then a further 2 years for the medication appointment (in my area). Those 5 years aren't any random years but often the years they are preparing for and sitting all their exams.
I've used a private clinic for miscarriages. Many use them for IVF. Or to get a hip replacement done without waiting years, in pain. All those clinics have to be there to make money, they aren't charities. That doesn't mean they won't do a good job because they are private.
How can it be ok for a child to wait 5 years for the help they need? You can only think this is ok if you don't really "believe" in ADHD.

By the way are you all aware that the original title of the show was False Diagnosis: The ADHD Scandal but the BBC changed it after a number of concerns raised before broadcast.

My son is well behaved. He gets really anxious and upset about not being able to get what's in his head down onto paper. He thinks he isn't right and then over thinks everything because his brain is over whirring. There's always about ten different things going on with him. He can't do one task at a time. To say he's the Duracell Bunny doesn't cut it. But he can sit and watch a serious adult TV science programme without fuss if he's interested in it. He's a sensitive boy who really looks out for his mates and likes to follow the rules (most of the time!). He's bright. He can focus on certain things and do them amazingly well but on others he needs reminding where he is literally every five minutes. But he's also incredibly impulsive and can be easily led. He has a certain disregard for danger.

He breaks most of the stereotypes for ADHD and that's really part of the problem we now face. Because people don't understand what it is and who it affects.

We now will face even more challenges in 'justifying' what is bleeding obvious to people who spend any length of time with him.

Exactly. How can they possibly find this statistic? There are many people going round with undiagnosed MH conditions and according to everyone on MN undiagnosed adhd. And others with a diagnosis, but if they see another psychiatrist they may have differing opinion. This happened to DB and he’s had the fullest of NHS MH assessments after being sectioned twice. 2 completely differing opinions. The idea of people with potentially other serious MH conditions getting swept up in this and receiving prescriptions for strong drugs they may not need is scary. There’s no exact science when diagnosing these things but I worry ADHD is being seen as essentially another MH condition. It’s not.

At what point will people admit there is over diagnosis? When 20% of people have it? 50% ? It’s has to stop somewhere and I fear that point will be after thousands and thousands are hooked on strong drugs with serious side effects.

As others have also added here, people only use private clinics out of sheer desperation, and not from any other I'll intentions. In our case, DS was facing a 3+ year assessment wait list here locally, and that was just before the Covid lockdown. He was already in his first year of secondary and struggling to cope.

The private clinic we went to was run by a (semi at that point, now fully)retired NHS paediatrician and psychologist who both set up shop together to deal with this very issue, of families being devastated by a public system that is both slow and complex. Their diagnostic reports for my son were NICE compliant and very easily accepted by NHS. Had we waited for NHS to assess him, he would have been halfway through his GCSEs. I have no regrets whatsoever.

Fucking hell. So they knew the programme was problematic.

Panorama has form for this shit. It's been really irresponsible in the past on other things.

It pretends to be cutting investigative journalism, but far too often it's sensationalist low quality poorly thought out tabloid fodder which is massively irresponsible.

I hate it as a show.

Lots of people here on this thread taking it personally thinking the programme is attacking them. It is not. It's a growing scandal of potential over-diagnosis of a complex neurodevelopmental disorder which effects society as a whole to make money

I think most are taking exception to the OP who has continually trotted out the classic "oh we are all a bit ADHD" line.

Yes. That’s exactly the problem @RedToothBrush. It’s already hard enough and a fight against dismissal of the symptoms and effects. Perpetuating the idea that ADHD is just a scam is enormously damaging.

It surprises me not one bit that the original title had the word ‘fake’ in it. The programme makers set out to prove their point not to actually investigate anything.

Panorama had a previous episode about ADHD that had to be withdrawn entirely (as in, can never be shown again) after complaints were upheld about its accuracy.

At what point will people admit there is over diagnosis? When 20% of people have it? 50%
you're just having a laugh now

yes. And the ‘adhd is fake’ response was pretty much inevitable.

I think most of us would like proper assessment and treatment within the nhs. The actual story here is of an underresourced nhs - which definitely is rationing assessment and diagnosis - leading to people having to seek private alternatives. And lack of proper oversight enabling unscrupulous firms to exploit that.

I’m absolutely not. I think in the US it’s got up to something like 10%, so if it’s still under recognised and under diagnosed according to many people here, how high will the % go?

What if there comes the point that the UK has inflated rates of ADHD in comparison to the rest of the world?

Never, unless America gets nuked 😂

Actually there are some avantsges to adhd diagnosis
you can get access to drugs (I wouldn't want them but people who need to focus use them sometimes -was a little side his role of them in us universities a few years back)
some workplaces will give special consideration (eg working from home, more flexible work condition:)
chikdren will get an extra 20 minutes in gcses and a levels. This won't be reported to anyone in the final grades.