Thank God that the process for diagnosis of ADHD has finally been removed from the “clip the ticket” gravy train that it’s been on for way too long.

I am also pleased to see that media have been kind to Dr Tony Hanne and others who have made this an issue “to be actioned” not just “tutted” over.

Coincidentally “Psychiatry Times” of 3 February noted that “data presented (at a major conference on the subject) showed significant differences in educational, vocational and financial outcomes for individuals diagnosed with ADHD in childhood…”

All of us in clinical practice have been crying out about this for years – if we can get a diagnosis and appropriate treatment early in a child’s life, then their journey is on a more prosperous and healthy path than if they are debilitated by ADHD symptoms throughout their educational years.

Psychiatry Times on 3 February also had a good article on what they referred to as “Precision Medicine”, which to us here at the “ends of the earth” simply translates into medication being “dose-appropriate” to the weight, fitness, personality, social support, and a host of other factors of each and every patient.

The article notes – “precision medicine enhances opioid use disorder treatment by considering individual biological and psychosocial variability, refining existing evidence based medications…”

We have suffered for years with a one-size-fits-all mentality in much of our official mental health interventions so it is heartening to see how American Psychiatrists are starting to change their thinking rather than just pressing all patients through the sausage machine of DSM flow chart processes.

Let’s be good case takers treating every case as an individual person of value – so obvious isn’t it and part of all our ethical statements and yet so ignored for so long by so many. (Apologies to Winston Churchill for the last phrase…)