Dr Norman Swan
speaker
238 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Apr 2026
last heard 19 Jul
Dr Norman Swan’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
And Western Australia stands out.
So to June 2024, 4.4% of adults in Fremantle filled a script for an ADHD drug.
This is an extraordinary rise, by the way, over the last few years.
And you look at women under the age of 44, it comes up roughly around 6%.
But since then, the rate of prescriptions for ADHD drugs have gone up by another 30%, in fact, more than that.
So then you're up around 8%.
When you ask the experts what actually is the rate of ADHD in the community, it's between 2.5 and 3%.
So something's going on because you've just got these sky-high diagnosis rates.
It is a neurodevelopmental disorder, meaning that it's been there probably since birth.
In other words, you've got a genetic predisposition.
And you cannot diagnose ADHD accurately without evidence of it being there in childhood in some shape or form.
School reports...
teacher reports, there needs to be correlation because there really isn't any such thing as ADHD which suddenly appears in adulthood.
So it's a neurodevelopmental disorder and involves impulsivity.
It involves problems with emotional regulation.
It involves hyperactivity, which includes this inner restlessness.
There are other features of it as well.
And the key here with ADHD is that it's not a simple condition.
There's no test for it.
It's a matter of clinician judgment, which is why this variation may arise.
Showing 141–160 of 238 · page 8 of 12
← Previous
Next →