Use of ADHD medication has tripled over the last decade

Dramatic increase in women seeking treatment for ADHD in the UK, new study shows

The use of prescription medications for Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has tripled in the last decade - with women seeing the most "dramatic" increase, according to a major new study.

Around 3 million people in the UK have ADHD, a condition which impacts how people focus their attention. But in recent years the number of diagnoses have soared and so has the rate of prescriptions.

Researchers led by the University of Oxford examined electronic health records from Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK, covering more than 198,000 people between 2010 and 2023.

Using this data researchers were able to estimate the use of ADHD medication among adults and children aged three and above. Medication use increased in all countries during the study period, but it tripled in the UK and more than doubled in the Netherlands.

While only 0.01 per cent of Britons over 25 were medicated for ADHD in 2010, the figure surged to 0.2 per cent by 2023, marking the highest relative increase among all countries studied.

Use of medication for ADHD had soared in the past decade, study finds (stock image) (PA Wire)

The trend is particularly sharp among women over 25 with medication rates rising from 0.01 per cent to 0.2 per cent. This change has been attributed to a growing understanding about how the condition presents differently in women.

“We observed a consistent increase in ADHD medication use across Europe, but the most striking changes were among adults, especially women,” said Xintong Li, lead author of the study from the University of Oxford.

“These findings likely reflect growing awareness and diagnosis of adult ADHD, but they also raise important questions about long-term treatment patterns and care needs.”

Whilst boys often show "hyperactive" symptoms, women frequently present with inattentiveness. The study emphasises that such gender-related socialisation has since led to a generation being overlooked in childhood, only to seek diagnoses later as adults.

The most pronounced increases were seen among adults aged 25 and over. In the UK, ADHD medication use in this age group rose more than twenty-fold in women and fifteen-fold in men. But men remained more likely to receive ADHD medication overall.

Questions were also raised over long-term treatment. Despite the rise in prescriptions, only 31 per cent of UK patients remained on their medication after one year. In Germany, that figure dropped to a low of just 15 per cent.

This high dropout rate suggests many struggle to find the right balance with treatment. Interestingly, those who did persist often had a history of using antidepressants, suggesting patients with more complex mental health needs are the most likely to secure support.

Such clinical complexity indicates that ADHD rarely exists in a vacuum. Yet, despite these rising figures, the study’s researchers emphasise the condition remains significantly under-treated compared to the 3 per cent of adults globally estimated to have the condition.

The report concludes that while not everyone requires medication, the current gap between global prevalence and local treatment rates indicates that many patients are still failing to receive the clinical help they need.

These findings come as the NHS faces a crisis in neurodiversity services. With record-long waiting lists for assessments, many patients in the UK still face waits of several years to confirm a diagnosis and access any support.

Health officials warned today that without urgent investment in diagnostic services, the "substantial proportion" of adults currently missing out on treatment will continue to face significant barriers to both work and mental health stability.

The Lancet authors called for a radical rethink of how adult neurodiversity is managed, warning that the current "catch-up" in prescriptions is merely the tip of a much larger public health challenge facing the UK.