UK children less likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than US children
However, the same study, led by the University of Exeter Medical School, suggests that autism diagnosis is still rising. The study is published online in the Journal of Autism Developmental Disorders , published by Springer, and was supported by the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care in the South West Peninsula (NIHR PenCLAHRC). ADHD is thought to be the most common disorder of childhood. A 2009 study in the USA found that 6.3 per cent of children aged 5-9 were diagnosed with ADHD. In contrast, just 1.5 per cent of parents in the UK reported a diagnosis of ADHD in children aged between 6-8. The team looked at figures from the UK Millennium Cohort Study, which is a sample of more than 19,000 children, representative of the UK population. Dr Ginny Russell of the University of Exeter Medical School, lead author of the study, said: "Our findings reveal that doctors in the UK are far less likely to deploy the ADHD label than their US counterp...