An official review in England has found there is a risk of people being over-diagnosed with ADHD and autism.

I just hope that whatever is acted upon is properly funded. Westminster has a bad habit of including Wales in recomendations, but not funding them and then saying the Assembly is failing to deliver, I guess its the same in other devolved nations?

Yes, they do. That's the crucial context isn't it? I was just trying to reprsent my initial feelings of whiplash as one figure swung to another. But the 80-97% range does indeed match well with a situation where sufficient distress and/or challenge has occurred that paying thousands to know one way or the other means that the confirmed diagnosis is way more likely coming than not.  

Fair. It was more a case of 'make do and mend' as far as available, public-facing information in nearest geographical proximity... but it's far from ideal to not have the more regionally-specific to take a read on things from. :-)

Shardovan said:

a similarly varied picture UK-wide wouldn't be too surprising I suppose. 

Heh, my background is a researcher and I depend on facts. England is very different from the other UK countries in many things. Without data, it's unsafe to assume the situation is the same in each country.

Shardovan said:

What is the general UK-ish private autism assessment confirmed diagnosis percentage? (97% - whaaaat?- in some places -ah, Ok, 14% in other places - huh???, 80 is some others.

The thing is, if you are going to actually pay a lot of money for a private assessment, you aren't going to do that unless you have a lot of symptoms and researched it a lot and have the evidence to back up your thinking to show your assessor. Your probably less likely to pay for one if it's just on a whim, or just to see. So the high rates make sense in that respect.

I think that Google's AI thingy was using that as its main source, yes. Stats seems more locked down elsewhere, but a similarly varied picture UK-wide wouldn't be too surprising I suppose. 

What bugs me around rows over diagnosis and the "NEET" debate is that it forgets a lot of jobs autistic or other SEND adults would go into in previous years has pretty much gone for now.

Retail, Cleaning, Warehouses, Garderning, Admin etc. 

Theres an article in the Guardian on the same report, and a long letter from a load of campaigners in he letters page on SEND reforms.

I didn't read it that thoroughly as I'm in Wales and such things are devolved here, but I'm glad that the report stated that young people aren't snowflakes and really do have reasons for mental ill health. It also pointed out that with so many people self diagnosing, the lines between medical and social are becoming blurred and that we also are at risk of people being underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed or over diagnosed.

On the SEND thing, it said that many parents want there to be more and better integrated schooling with better support in mainstream schools. I dont' know if its me projecting my horrible experience of school, but I wondered what SEND children think and if they want to be in mainstream schools or would rather have seperate provision?

There is so much fuss about the autism and adhd possible misdiagnosis. And depression misdiagnosis is estimated to be st least 50%. 50% of patients who received this diagnosis get fed with meds that don't work for them, because they are misdiagnosed. Snd where is the cry about it? Why BBC and Uta Frith don't talk about people with poor mental health,  who get wrong dx and wrong treatment sometimes for years? 

Shardovan said:

What is the general UK-ish private autism assessment confirmed diagnosis percentage? (97% - whaaaat?- in some places -ah, Ok, 14% in other places - huh???, 80 is some others... so basically all over the map... literally (and figuratively)). 

Were you relying on this Guardian article? If so, that's only for England, not for the UK.

As with the recent BBC article focusing on Uta Frith's scepticism etc., (and even though I'm loooooooong past being a 'young person'), I felt sufficiently triggered this morning to do a compulsive deep-dive (one I don't have the energy or mental robustness for right now) into all manner of things I've rigorously checked into before, and yet 'imposter syndrome' of course has to kick into high gear anyway, and I need something like 'good enough'  closure/reassurance all over again. So, it went something like...What are the diagnostic rates for the place that privately assessed me? (OK, no public information. Makes sense.) Are they regulated/monitored to a high degree, and do all their credentials appear to be trustworthy? (short answer: yes). What is the general UK-ish private autism assessment confirmed diagnosis percentage? (97% - whaaaat?- in some places -ah, Ok, 14% in other places - huh???, 80 is some others... so basically all over the map... literally (and figuratively)). 

Anyway, that's the self-focused/hyperfocussed bit. Looking at it again with the anxiety soothed a little, I see that the report author is saying that the really damaging talk about  mental health conditions being 'overdiagnosed' should be dialed down as the numbers are authentic. At the same time, autism seems to be getting a little thrown under the bus in terms of some people being written off as spontaneously anxious people with a bunch of loose adjacent traits. Not sure how I feel about that - sounds a bit dangerously reductive, though I'm sure that to be fair the report in full (maybe even in summary) won't have it quite so bluntly put. 

The really dispiriting bit is that, given its a story where the critical mass of the thing is to say 'Streeting is wrong, mental health diagnosis rates in general are correct'.. look at what is pulled out of that to form the main headline... the bit that will speak to Daily Mail-reading die-hard sceptic types sitting in the Cotswalds fuming about support benefits for the 'undeserving' etc. It seems a cynical and agenda-accomodating choice for the BBC site to have made, and that's disappointing, ... worrying...

I've taken the following from the BBC reporting. It's worth bearing in mind that this is only for England.

"The author of today's report, Prof Peter Fonagy, has been speaking to Radio 4's Today programme. He starts by saying that former Health Secretary Wes Streeting - who first commissioned the review - was "with respect, completely wrong" when he talked about an over-diagnosis of mental health disorders. His findings show that "there has been a rise in distress and mental ill health amongst young people which is very, very real," he says, noting that one in five cases require treatment. Fonagy says that mental health distress in 25-year-olds is up by 50% since 1993, particularly anxiety and depression. He says that these "worsen the traits of ADHD and autism" so as awareness of these conditions has increased.

Professor Peter Fonagy, who chaired the review, has outlined three key findings in an interview with BBC Breakfast:

• A "very real substantial rise in mental ill-health", particularly among young people - it increased by 50% between 1993 and the present day
• An increase in the "co-occurrence of different diagnoses", meaning more people have common mental disorders (like anxiety and depression) as well as ADHD and autism
• An increase in the number of diagnoses of people with ADHD and autism, rather than a rise in how many people have either condition.

Bridget Phillipson, the Labour Party's chair, is doing the government's media round this morning... she says "better access to mental health services" is needed "in the community and also in schools" - adding that the government is working on this."

All of this sounds good, not bad. It's brought up the issue of the appalling support for people. Yes, it's concentrating oin children, but this is the beginning of the discussion.

Here's the executive summary of the report. Take a look at the recommendations. The full report is here.