Channel 4’s documentary about ADHD risks increasing “stigma and scepticism about a very real disability”, a consultant psychiatrist has argued.
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a condition that means a person’s brain works differently to most other people.
Symptoms of the condition vary and manifest themselves in different people; some people with ADHD might find themselves easily distracted or forgetful.
While other people with ADHD might find they have a lot of energy or simply feel restless.
However, earlier this week, Ch4 aired The Great ADHD Myth?, in which presenter Dr Max Pemberton described the condition as a “social construct, not a disorder of the brain".
On Lunchtime Live, consultant psychiatrist with ADHD Ireland Dr Michelle Hill said there are “important conversations” that need to be had about ADHD:
“How do we diagnose it? How do we make our assessments rigorous, robust? How we best support families with the condition?” she said.
“But that's not what the programme was framed around; the programme was framed around whether ADHD is a myth.
“That's really not where the scientific debate is at all; mainstream science has already concluded that ADHD is a well evidenced neurodevelopmental disability.
“And a show like that, I think, creates doubt around that with not insignificant consequences; it increases stigma and scepticism about a very real disability that hundreds of people live with.”
Dr Hill continued that while she welcomes “critical voices” in science, she also feels The Great ADHD Myth? risks leaving ADHD sufferers feeling “quite delegitimised”.
“This programme gave disproportionate weight, as you said, to people with established sceptical views about ADHD,” she said.
“There was very little space for the much larger body of clinicians and researchers who accept the mainstream science around it.
“I mean, since the programme has aired, there were people with major credentials, but the current president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the UK, has publicly spoken out saying that the evidence was not fairly portrayed.”
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