Our response to Channel 4’s documentary, what it got right, what it missed, and how you can make your voice heard with ADHD UK.

Channel 4’s The Great ADHD Myth? got one thing right. Schools were never built for kids like us.

I say this as someone who’s watched this argument play out for years, this claim is well documented.  Government data published in 2022 found that 80% of children cautioned or sentenced for an offence had been recorded as having special educational needs, more than double the rate across the general school population. There’s still no consistent neurodivergence screening for excluded pupils. The documentary is right that the system kids are placed in is failing them.

Where it gets trickier is what we’re meant to take from that.

Medication isn’t handed out lightly

Nobody is arguing that ADHD medication should be taken without care. If anything, the opposite is closer to true. In 2023, a national shortage of core ADHD medications left people rationing doses or going without for months, caused by rising demand meeting a supply chain that couldn’t keep pace.

For context, the same class of medication being questioned in the documentary is the one a large Swedish study followed over several years, finding a real drop in criminal convictions among people once medicated, 32% for men, 41% for women (Lichtenstein et al., 2012, *NEJM*). A separate report on ADHD in the criminal justice system found that around 25% of people in the system have ADHD, five to ten times the rate you’d expect in the general population. That’s the unmet need this conversation is about.

A note on Dr Pemberton

Dr Pemberton is a psychiatrist, so it’s not surprising he was able to navigate an ADHD assessment (he knows what an assessor is listening for.) Worth knowing, for context: his NHS background is in eating disorders and addiction, not ADHD. This also isn’t his first piece on the subject. Back in December 2024, he wrote in The Spectator that ADHD is “wildly over-diagnosed” and that the solution “isn’t Ritalin, it’s better parenting.”

Why the coverage itself is the problem

At the end of the day, this isn’t about one documentary. ADHD UK surveyed over 2,200 people after Panorama’s 2023 ADHD coverage and found 90% reported increased stigma, with 84% saying that stigma would put them off seeking an assessment at all. That’s the real cost of programmes like this, paid by people already waiting years for help, at a time when ADHD assessments are getting harder to access and waiting lists here in Berkshire have been on pause.

None of this takes away from what’s real for you. Your ADHD is not a myth, and needing support isn’t a lifestyle choice.

What you can do

If you have been effected by this documentary ADHD UK have put together a short survey and an Ofcom complaint template so that our reaction to this programme gets counted. Both take a few minutes.

Fill in the ADHD UK survey
Send the Ofcom complaint

This article was written by Jamie Gordon the founding director of Reading ADHD Group and Thames Valley ADHD Network CIC