Exploring Adult ADHD- Yet Another ‘Epidemic’?

The recent and exponential rise in diagnoses of ‘Adult ADHD’ is a phenomenon that no clinician can ignore. The National Health Service is facing unprecedented demand, yet the debate surrounding this surge is often polarized between uncritical acceptance and dismissal.

This seminar invites mental health professionals to pause and interrogate the deeper implications of this shift. Is this the long-overdue recognition of a neurodevelopmental reality, or are we witnessing the formation of a socio-psychiatric ‘bubble’?

Dr Derek Summerfield will open the dialogue by placing the current ADHD phenomenon alongside historical psychiatric ‘epidemics,’ such as Multiple Personality Disorder and the recovered memory movement. He will ask whether the current expansion of diagnostic criteria represents medical progress, or if it signals a cultural contagion where “problems of living” are being reclassified as biological disorders without sufficient scientific anchoring.

In response, Dr Mathew Harrison will move the inquiry from the sociological to the psychoanalytic. He will explore the utility of the diagnosis for the patient’s internal world. Using a psychoanalytic lens, he will investigate why this specific label has become such a powerful “container” for modern distress. What is it about the diagnosis that offers such immediate relief, and what psychic complexity might we—both patients and clinicians—be attempting to evacuate by grasping for it?.

The Discussion

Following the presentations, Dr Chris Douglas will chair a dialogue between the panel and the audience.

The panel will consider the “forced choice” many clinicians currently face: the pressure to either validate the diagnosis instantly or risk dismissing the patient’s suffering entirely. We will explore the unconscious pressures operating within our institutions and consider whether the mental health field is colluding with a “flight from complexity”.

The discussion will not offer simple answers but will challenge attendees to consider: What unspeakable human experiences are being projected into the label of Adult ADHD, and how can we maintain the capacity to think amidst the pressure to medicate?

Logistics & Recording

• Platform: Online via Google Meet.
• Recording Access: A recording of the main presentations will be available to all ticket holders for 30 days after the event.
• Confidentiality: Please note that to encourage open clinical reflection and protect confidentiality, the audience discussion and Q&A portion will not be recorded.

The Speakers

Dr Derek Summerfield is a Consultant Psychiatrist and an honorary senior lecturer at London’s Institute of Psychiatry and a member of the Executive Committee of Transcultural Special Interest Group at the Royal College of Psychiatry. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Egyptian Psychiatric Association. He has published around 150 papers and has made other contributions in medical and social sciences literature. He is a member of the Critical Psychiatry Network and has been involved in trying to address the impact of the Israeli Government’s action against Palestinians and the responsibilities of the medical establishment.

Dr Mathew Harrison works as a Consultant Psychiatrist in Liaison Psychiatry in Yorkshire. He is dual-trained as a psychoanalytic Medical Psychotherapist and works across the boundaries between psychiatry, medicine and psychoanalytic approaches.

Dr Chris Douglas is former chair of the Harry Guntrip Psychotherapy Trust, Vice President of UK Balint Society and works in the NHS as a Medical Psychotherapist in Huddersfield.

CPD Accreditation

This event is accredited for 1.5 hours of CPD, subject to peer group approval.