Inquiry into ADHD treatment in Scotland

January 10, 2005
by Angela Hussain

The NHS Scotland health watchdog has launched an inquiry into the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after new figures revealed a tenfold increase in the use of the psychoactive drug Ritalin.

Prescriptions in Scotland for Ritalin - generic name methylphenidate - have risen from 69 per 10,000 in 1996 to 603 last year, says NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (NHS QIS)

"An increase in the clinical recognition of ADHD may have contributed to the increase in the prescribing rate for Scotland - which remains below that of Switzerland, Netherlands and Iceland, and is around a third of that in Canada and the United States," says the agency.

"It is unclear whether the current prescribing rates are above or below the expected level, or why there are regional variations. For that reason, NHS QIS will fund an audit.....of the care and treatment provided for Scottish children with ADHD."

NHS QIS Chief Executive Dr David Steel said: "We can see significant regional variations, but until we have a robust, evidence-based assessment of what the appropriate level might be, no-one can say whether this is the result of under-prescribing, over-prescribing, demographic and social variations, or some complex mix of all these issues."

Read for yourself:
Summary of report by NHS QIS, entitled The Health Indicators Report - A Focus on Children (pdf)

See also:
August 4, 2004: Clinical psychology publishes landmark critique of ADHD and use of psychiatric medication for children - "overzealous" mental health professionals prescribe "addictive and brain-disabling" drugs, argue clinicians

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