By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions. We in turn value your personal details in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD, something that I am delighted with as it provides a lot of answers to my personality and why I am struggling in a new senior management role at work.
I am shortly going to start medication for the symptoms and am hoping they provide the relief that I need in order to address quite a few troublesome areas of my working day-to-day.
Has anyone else experience of being diagnosed late in life? (I am 50) and did the medication help?
They are, unfortunately, not wrong. They have a financial incentive to diagnose people with ADHD so they can sell them very expensive prescriptions and they are preying on people who may have a litany of mental health issues.
EDIT: On the above, this might just be the minority, but anyone using these companies should be careful and make sure you're choosing a reputable one. I'd still thoroughly recommend going through the NHS.
The issue is that the symptoms of ADHD have a large overlap with lots of other conditions and you really need to spend time identifying the right one. In the NHS, they are pretty damn thorough but this means it takes time when they keep cutting psychologists and the waiting lists keep increasing.
One of my wife's family members has had issues for a long time and became convinced she had ADHD. Didn't want to wait for the NHS so her dad paid for her to be seen by one of these clinics. They did the minimum and she got her diagnosis and prescription.
As it turned out, she had complex PTSD.
And they gave her medication that made the problem much, much worse.
This ended up with a crisis team called and police response, along with my wife's career nearly completely derailed whilst she dealt with the fallout.
There's a reason a lot of GPs will refuse to take over prescriptions that come from these places.
[Post edited 25 Jun 15:21]
On the whole, I was feeling quite heartened by what I read in this thread. Some really helpful and excellent input. There is, however, quite a bit to pick apart here.
What I do find interesting is the claim that private clinics are financially incentivised to diagnose ADHD so they can sell medication. Aside from the fact that the medication is sold by the pharmacy, not the ADHD clinic, the logic is also flawed.
If true, every private cardiologist is incentivised to find heart disease, every orthopaedic surgeon is incentivised to find bad hips, and every NHS trust is incentivised to diagnose conditions because funding follows activity. The existence of a financial relationship doesn't automatically invalidate the clinical outcome.
In reality, it is far less black and white. There are excellent NHS clinicians. There are excellent private clinicians. There are poor NHS assessments. There are poor private assessments. The real measure is not whether the service is NHS or private. It's whether the clinician is prepared to say "no" when the evidence doesn't support the diagnosis.
And all too often this is the part that people tend to miss or choose to ignore.
Nobody disputes that ADHD overlaps with a huge number of other conditions. Trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, autism, menopause, substance use, physical health conditions and half a dozen other things can all look remarkably similar on the surface. Any clinician worth their registration should be actively trying to rule those things in or out before reaching a diagnosis (see below).
A proper ADHD assessment isn't about finding ADHD. It's about finding the most accurate explanation for the difficulties someone is experiencing: Sometimes that's ADHD. Sometimes it's autism. Sometimes it's trauma. Sometimes it's anxiety. Sometimes it's poor sleep. Often it's a combination of several things. And sometimes the answer a patient desperately wants is not the answer the evidence supports. Can the symptoms be better explained by the presence of another psychiatric disorder? It is literally part of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD.
As for GPs refusing shared care, that gets thrown around a lot. In reality, GPs refuse shared care for all sorts of reasons, including local policy, workload, liability, lack of expertise, funding arrangements and NHS pathway requirements. It is not automatic evidence that a diagnosis is wrong. And many GPs DO accept shared care, despite all of these reasons to refuse.
There are undoubtably many terrible, poorly qualified, illegal clinics offering ADHD diagnoses and treatment. I've reported several to the CQC myself. There are also many providing expert assessments to families that can be life-changing and who care deeply for the patients that they see.
I am very sorry for what happened to your relative. There are, however, several possibilities. The assessment may have been poor. The diagnosis may have been wrong. They may have had both. The medication may have been inappropriate. Such desperate mental health situations are seldom binary.
Yes, I have skin in the game; like the other contributor in the thread, I also own a clinic, and we have carried out hundreds of assessments. Every week we rule out ADHD and also regularly refuse medication as a first-line treatment. We do not prey on anyone. We even refuse to book assessments over the phone, as people with ADHD tend to be impulsive. We ask people to reflect and decide if we are the right clinic for them. So if anyone wants advice about ADHD assessments, please feel free to reach out via PM, happy to help.
So, the easiest £££ in the world is telling somebody what they want to hear. The difficult conversation is explaining why they don't have ADHD when they've spent many months convincing themselves that they do.
They are, unfortunately, not wrong. They have a financial incentive to diagnose people with ADHD so they can sell them very expensive prescriptions and they are preying on people who may have a litany of mental health issues.
EDIT: On the above, this might just be the minority, but anyone using these companies should be careful and make sure you're choosing a reputable one. I'd still thoroughly recommend going through the NHS.
The issue is that the symptoms of ADHD have a large overlap with lots of other conditions and you really need to spend time identifying the right one. In the NHS, they are pretty damn thorough but this means it takes time when they keep cutting psychologists and the waiting lists keep increasing.
One of my wife's family members has had issues for a long time and became convinced she had ADHD. Didn't want to wait for the NHS so her dad paid for her to be seen by one of these clinics. They did the minimum and she got her diagnosis and prescription.
As it turned out, she had complex PTSD.
And they gave her medication that made the problem much, much worse.
This ended up with a crisis team called and police response, along with my wife's career nearly completely derailed whilst she dealt with the fallout.
There's a reason a lot of GPs will refuse to take over prescriptions that come from these places.
[Post edited 25 Jun 15:21]
I've spoken with my GP and they've declined share care due to "regular" pharmacies having supply issues with ADHD medication
I currently have the "season ticket" (prepay prescription) and Psychiatry UK prescripe/dispense/deliver to me
On the whole, I was feeling quite heartened by what I read in this thread. Some really helpful and excellent input. There is, however, quite a bit to pick apart here.
What I do find interesting is the claim that private clinics are financially incentivised to diagnose ADHD so they can sell medication. Aside from the fact that the medication is sold by the pharmacy, not the ADHD clinic, the logic is also flawed.
If true, every private cardiologist is incentivised to find heart disease, every orthopaedic surgeon is incentivised to find bad hips, and every NHS trust is incentivised to diagnose conditions because funding follows activity. The existence of a financial relationship doesn't automatically invalidate the clinical outcome.
In reality, it is far less black and white. There are excellent NHS clinicians. There are excellent private clinicians. There are poor NHS assessments. There are poor private assessments. The real measure is not whether the service is NHS or private. It's whether the clinician is prepared to say "no" when the evidence doesn't support the diagnosis.
And all too often this is the part that people tend to miss or choose to ignore.
Nobody disputes that ADHD overlaps with a huge number of other conditions. Trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, autism, menopause, substance use, physical health conditions and half a dozen other things can all look remarkably similar on the surface. Any clinician worth their registration should be actively trying to rule those things in or out before reaching a diagnosis (see below).
A proper ADHD assessment isn't about finding ADHD. It's about finding the most accurate explanation for the difficulties someone is experiencing: Sometimes that's ADHD. Sometimes it's autism. Sometimes it's trauma. Sometimes it's anxiety. Sometimes it's poor sleep. Often it's a combination of several things. And sometimes the answer a patient desperately wants is not the answer the evidence supports. Can the symptoms be better explained by the presence of another psychiatric disorder? It is literally part of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD.
As for GPs refusing shared care, that gets thrown around a lot. In reality, GPs refuse shared care for all sorts of reasons, including local policy, workload, liability, lack of expertise, funding arrangements and NHS pathway requirements. It is not automatic evidence that a diagnosis is wrong. And many GPs DO accept shared care, despite all of these reasons to refuse.
There are undoubtably many terrible, poorly qualified, illegal clinics offering ADHD diagnoses and treatment. I've reported several to the CQC myself. There are also many providing expert assessments to families that can be life-changing and who care deeply for the patients that they see.
I am very sorry for what happened to your relative. There are, however, several possibilities. The assessment may have been poor. The diagnosis may have been wrong. They may have had both. The medication may have been inappropriate. Such desperate mental health situations are seldom binary.
Yes, I have skin in the game; like the other contributor in the thread, I also own a clinic, and we have carried out hundreds of assessments. Every week we rule out ADHD and also regularly refuse medication as a first-line treatment. We do not prey on anyone. We even refuse to book assessments over the phone, as people with ADHD tend to be impulsive. We ask people to reflect and decide if we are the right clinic for them. So if anyone wants advice about ADHD assessments, please feel free to reach out via PM, happy to help.
So, the easiest £££ in the world is telling somebody what they want to hear. The difficult conversation is explaining why they don't have ADHD when they've spent many months convincing themselves that they do.
On the ones I've engaged with, you had to pay to keep your prescription and it was directly to them and cost hundreds of pounds.
I cannot claim to be anything approaching an expert and my particular experience with them is anecdotal but but my wife is a clinical psychologist and shares pretty similar concerns about how some of these clinics are operating and how diligent they are. They nearly killed her family member because they wanted to give her the ADHD stamp.
Be empowered by your differences, not defined by them.
"Neurodivergent" by Ren and Chris Webby (a collab known as "Inpatient"). Taken from their forthcoming album "Asylum"
Chris, playing the janitor in this piece, writes:
"Having ADHD was a huge piece of my childhood (to the point I named my label EightyHD) .. then much later in life come to find out I’m mildly autistic too ..
My brain is all sorts of confusing and often times frustrating, but i’ve learned through life that its unique design comes with certain super powers as well.
Be empowered by your differences, not defined by them.
This one’s for my fellow mental misfits out there !!
On the ones I've engaged with, you had to pay to keep your prescription and it was directly to them and cost hundreds of pounds.
I cannot claim to be anything approaching an expert and my particular experience with them is anecdotal but but my wife is a clinical psychologist and shares pretty similar concerns about how some of these clinics are operating and how diligent they are. They nearly killed her family member because they wanted to give her the ADHD stamp.
As I said, some clinics are dreadful and operate illegally. Others offer a rigorous, diagnostically sound, NICE-aligned pathway, operated by people who genuinely care. We share your wife's concerns. My issue was with the blanket comment that these clinics prey on people's vulnerability. Some do, many don't.
I'll be honest, I don't recognise what you are describing regarding your prescriptions. Following titration, if shared care is not established, most clinics will prescribe for you and charge you a fee. Typically £25 to £50 per month in my experience. It is the medicines that cost the money, and if they have their own pharmacy, they should not be forcing you to use it. The drugs typically range from a few ££s for low-dose generics to maybe £130 for higher doses of the Elvanses of this world.
On the whole, I was feeling quite heartened by what I read in this thread. Some really helpful and excellent input. There is, however, quite a bit to pick apart here.
What I do find interesting is the claim that private clinics are financially incentivised to diagnose ADHD so they can sell medication. Aside from the fact that the medication is sold by the pharmacy, not the ADHD clinic, the logic is also flawed.
If true, every private cardiologist is incentivised to find heart disease, every orthopaedic surgeon is incentivised to find bad hips, and every NHS trust is incentivised to diagnose conditions because funding follows activity. The existence of a financial relationship doesn't automatically invalidate the clinical outcome.
In reality, it is far less black and white. There are excellent NHS clinicians. There are excellent private clinicians. There are poor NHS assessments. There are poor private assessments. The real measure is not whether the service is NHS or private. It's whether the clinician is prepared to say "no" when the evidence doesn't support the diagnosis.
And all too often this is the part that people tend to miss or choose to ignore.
Nobody disputes that ADHD overlaps with a huge number of other conditions. Trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, sleep disorders, autism, menopause, substance use, physical health conditions and half a dozen other things can all look remarkably similar on the surface. Any clinician worth their registration should be actively trying to rule those things in or out before reaching a diagnosis (see below).
A proper ADHD assessment isn't about finding ADHD. It's about finding the most accurate explanation for the difficulties someone is experiencing: Sometimes that's ADHD. Sometimes it's autism. Sometimes it's trauma. Sometimes it's anxiety. Sometimes it's poor sleep. Often it's a combination of several things. And sometimes the answer a patient desperately wants is not the answer the evidence supports. Can the symptoms be better explained by the presence of another psychiatric disorder? It is literally part of the diagnostic criteria for ADHD.
As for GPs refusing shared care, that gets thrown around a lot. In reality, GPs refuse shared care for all sorts of reasons, including local policy, workload, liability, lack of expertise, funding arrangements and NHS pathway requirements. It is not automatic evidence that a diagnosis is wrong. And many GPs DO accept shared care, despite all of these reasons to refuse.
There are undoubtably many terrible, poorly qualified, illegal clinics offering ADHD diagnoses and treatment. I've reported several to the CQC myself. There are also many providing expert assessments to families that can be life-changing and who care deeply for the patients that they see.
I am very sorry for what happened to your relative. There are, however, several possibilities. The assessment may have been poor. The diagnosis may have been wrong. They may have had both. The medication may have been inappropriate. Such desperate mental health situations are seldom binary.
Yes, I have skin in the game; like the other contributor in the thread, I also own a clinic, and we have carried out hundreds of assessments. Every week we rule out ADHD and also regularly refuse medication as a first-line treatment. We do not prey on anyone. We even refuse to book assessments over the phone, as people with ADHD tend to be impulsive. We ask people to reflect and decide if we are the right clinic for them. So if anyone wants advice about ADHD assessments, please feel free to reach out via PM, happy to help.
So, the easiest £££ in the world is telling somebody what they want to hear. The difficult conversation is explaining why they don't have ADHD when they've spent many months convincing themselves that they do.
this is a good article and pretty much matches my experience - accepting entirely that HE is a very specific environment and is quite different from others such as the experience of the op.
And so as the loose-bowelled pigeon of time swoops low over the unsuspecting tourist of destiny, and the flatulent skunk of fate wanders into the air-conditioning system of eternity, I notice it's the end of the show
I've spoken with my GP and they've declined share care due to "regular" pharmacies having supply issues with ADHD medication
I currently have the "season ticket" (prepay prescription) and Psychiatry UK prescripe/dispense/deliver to me
I've got to admit, that's a new one on me. It doesn't make sense on so many levels. I'd certainly ask your GP to clarify what they mean and why it's a reason to refuse shared care.
As I said, some clinics are dreadful and operate illegally. Others offer a rigorous, diagnostically sound, NICE-aligned pathway, operated by people who genuinely care. We share your wife's concerns. My issue was with the blanket comment that these clinics prey on people's vulnerability. Some do, many don't.
I'll be honest, I don't recognise what you are describing regarding your prescriptions. Following titration, if shared care is not established, most clinics will prescribe for you and charge you a fee. Typically £25 to £50 per month in my experience. It is the medicines that cost the money, and if they have their own pharmacy, they should not be forcing you to use it. The drugs typically range from a few ££s for low-dose generics to maybe £130 for higher doses of the Elvanses of this world.
The company has been dissolved now so it might well be that this was a horrible outlier.
However you are right that I should have clarified that my words shouldn't have been taken as a blanket statement. My personal experience with them was just pain caused by must have been a very dodgy outfit.
By continuing to use the site, you agree to our use of cookies and to abide by our Terms and Conditions.
