Estimated ADHD population and number of patients treated with licensed ADHD medicines in the UK.
| Country | ADHD population, n | Treated, n (%) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CYP(5–17 years) | Adults(18–65 years) | All ages(5–65 years) | CYP(5–17 years) | Adults(18–65 years) | All ages(5–65 years) | |
| England | 441,021 | 1,232,004 | 1,673,024 | 114,867 (26.0%) | 191,227 (15.5%) | 306,094 (18.3%) |
| Scotland | 37,927 | 119,394 | 157,321 | 13,476 (35.5%) | 18,633 (15.6%) | 32,110 (20.4%) |
| Wales | 23,344 | 65,710 | 89,054 | 5,244 (22.5%) | 10,722 (16.3%) | 15,966 (17.9%) |
| Northern Ireland | 16,239 | 40,574 | 56,812 | N/A* | N/A* | 9,155 (16.1%) |
| Great Britain | 502,291 | 1,417,108 | 1,919,399 | 133,587 (26.6%) | 220,582 (15.6%) | 354,170 (18.5%) |
| UK | 518,530 | 1,457,682 | 1,976,211 | N/A† | N/A† | 363,325 (18.4%) |
ADHD: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder; CYP: children and young people; UK: United Kingdom. *: Data not available by age group; †: number of treated patients by age group could not be calculated for the UK as a whole due to the lack of data by age group for Northern Ireland.
The supplementary tables for this article are available at: https://www.explorationpub.com/uploads/Article/file/1004163_sup_1.pdf.
The authors would like to thank Peter Cain (Takeda UK) for statistical support and analysis.
BF, JD, CW and AK: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Visualization, Writing—review & editing. JD and CW: Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Project administration, Resources, Software, Validation. BF and AK: Writing—original draft, Funding acquisition. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
BF reports personal fees and nonfinancial support from Takeda and Medice. JD and CW are employees of Takeda UK Ltd, and JD owns stock in Takeda Pharm Sp ADS. AK is currently Chair of the ADHD Foundation.
In accordance with the regulations of the University of Nottingham, ethical approval was not required.
In accordance with the regulations of the University of Nottingham, consent to participate was not required.
Not applicable.
There are 2 primary data sources used for the calculations within this model, which are in the references.
The model was developed and funded by Takeda UK Ltd.
© The Author(s) 2026.
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