"I don’t use them routinely," he said. "If you think about the symptoms of ADHD, especially the ones that come out of magazines that they’re going to bring in to you, almost everybody at some point is going to fill these criteria. You want to ask people about those big, core ADHD symptoms: Are they really causing problems in your life?"
Dr. Davies acknowledged that adult ADHD is a disorder surrounded by considerable professional skepticism, even though the prevalence, serious consequences, and treatment responsiveness of adult ADHD are now well established.
"It’s a very controversial area outside of psychiatry but also inside psychiatry," according to Dr. Davies. "A psychiatric colleague of mine had diagnosed an adult patient with ADHD and then wanted to refer him to me. I asked why. He said, ‘Because I don’t believe in it.’"
Dr. Davies reported having no financial conflicts.