ADHD is a common disorder that can be misunderstood at times. Despite 3-5% of children being affected by ADHD, only 1.2% access specialist care.

Secondary care services are responsible for diagnosisng ADHD, often following a referral from a GP. Without this, access to care and treatment is often impossible.

Blandine French aimed to address the issue of ADHD in primary care through her PhD research, resulting in the development of an online psycho-education programme which has been adopted by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Alongside a systematic review, qualitative interviews with GPs, GP trainees, patients and healthcare professionals were conducted to explore barriers to GPs' understanding of ADHD. The resulting education programme was co-produced with GPs to assess its efficacy, followed by a brief evaluation of long-term impact and implementation.

The findings demonstrated that GPs rated the intervention as being highly acceptable and feasible to implement. In total, 221 GPs participated in the pilot RCT, which demonstrated that there was a significant impact on ADHD knowledge following the intervention

Funding: this project was funded through an ESRC DTC scholarship.

Investigator: Blandine French

Supervisors: Professor David Daley, Professor Kapil Sayal, Dr Elvira Perez

Podcast

‘ADHD and the implications of a lack of awareness within primary care’ – In Conversation with Blandine French, The Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health - listen here

Infographic

We have created an infographic which summarises the project. Click here to view.

Endorsements

With thanks to the following organisations who have endorsed the intervention: