Darrin Bull: ADHD NZ spokesperson on GPs being able to diagnose and treat ADHD in 2026

There's hope and relief from the ADHD community over prescription rule changes to improve treatment access. 

From February, GPs and nurse practitioners will be able to prescribe treatments from the outset - without a specialist recommendation. 

Wait times for specialist appointments vary, but can be over a year. 

ADHD NZ spokesperson Darrin Bull says over-diagnosis can be a concern, but these changes will still be enforced by medical professionals. 

"We're comfortable that the benefits of such a change outweighs the risks of some overdiagnoses - but the training is essential."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look good news if you or someone in your life
has ADHD, or you think they may have ADHD but
haven't been able to get diagnosed. From February next year,
GPS and in some cases nurses will be able to
diagnose and treat adults and children with ADHD. Until now,
only psychiatrists could do this, but the wait time to
get to one of them could have been as long
as a year in some cases. Darrenbull is the chairperson

(00:20):
of ADHD New Zealand and with us.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Hey Darren, hi heyding, I'm very well.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Thank you. Are you confident that GPS and nurse practitioners
have the skill set to be able to diagnose and treat?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yes, we are and I might note though that both
GPS and nurse practitioners have to be trained and working
within the area of practice, which means that the GP
is not interested, for example, in ADHD, they won't be
able to help.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Do you think that there's a danger of over diagnosis.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
No, I don't think so. First of all, the underdiagnosis
in New Zealand is significant, we're half that of Australia.
And second of all, you have the trained medical professionals
and they're working with guidelines. It should mean that we
have the correct level of diagnosis.

Speaker 1 (01:08):
Do you worry because at the moment we already have
a bit of a crunch on ADHD medication if I mean,
it sounds terrible saying this, but if we start diagnosing
more and more people and handing out the medication, do
we not end up with more of a problem here?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah, Look, there is that possibility for that, But there's
sort of two counter arguments of The first is the
medication shortage, so hopefully that's going to be resolved in
the next six months, noting or so far make have
been amazing in their approach to our community of this.
And the second thing is, you know, when it comes
to first of fear, there's not going to be a

(01:43):
whole stack of trained GPS in nurse practitioners available. They
have to go through the training, they have to work
with the Royal colleges to work that availability out and
capability and capacity is going to be key and it
might take one to two years to work. Brilliant.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Hey, thank you very much, Darren, appreciate your time. That's
Darren Ball, chairperson of ADHD New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
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