This uptick in ADHD diagnoses isn’t exactly out of the blue, though. Previous research shows it’s part of a continuing trend.
The study is based on data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention annually from 1997 to 2016. Researchers found that the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses in children and adolescents rose from 6.1 percent in 1997–1998 to 10.2 percent in 2015–2016. That's about a 67 percent increase.
“It may not be so much that ADHD itself has increased, but that the diagnosis of it has increased,” clinical psychologistExperts point to a number of possible reasons for this increase, including an increase in health care access. The study authors credit the Affordable Care Act with potentially widening access to care, especially among minority and lower-income communities.
But it's possible that sometimes doctors may make a diagnosis too quickly or based on incomplete information, Power says. “Many non-specialists—pediatricians for kids [and] general practitioners for adults—are confronted with parents [and] individuals seeking an ADHD diagnosis,” Hinshaw says.
Other experts we spoke with, however, wonder if the incidence of ADHD is truly increasing. Strathearn tells SELF he's “a little bit weary about putting this increase just down to greater awareness or diagnosis." He tells SELF that increased awareness may only explain so much of the trend, which continues to rise even though ADHD has been in the mainstream conversation for years now. “We’ve been studying this for a while now,” he says.
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