Adult ADHD: Why are waiting lists for diagnoses so long?

You’ve probably heard the term ADHD – or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – more and more in recent years. Almost 200,000 of you are waiting for a diagnosis and services are struggling to keep up with the demand. Last year twenty four different services told BBC Verify that it would take them eight years to get to everyone on their waiting lists. Now the NHS in England is setting up a taskforce to look at ADHD diagnoses. In this special programme on Adult ADHD, Claudia Hammond and guests ask how did we get to this point, and what can be done to shorten the waiting lists and to make sure people get a timely diagnosis if they need one? Claudia's guests are: Robin Ince - stand-up comedian and science presenter who recently received his own diagnosis of ADHD as an adult; Dr Jessica Eccles - a psychiatrist who does assessments for ADHD and has ADHD herself; and Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan - a neurologist who says we should be more careful about who receives a diagnosis. Producer: Lorna Stewart

You can listen to Adult ADHD: Why are waiting lists for diagnoses so long? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Adult ADHD: Why are waiting lists for diagnoses so long? is an episode from All in the Mind by BBC.

This episode is 28:11 long.

This episode was published on May 6, 2025.

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