Key Summary
- An editorial was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, which highlights the need to consider neurodivergence in mental health diagnosis and treatments.
- The editorial argues that conditions like ADHD, autism, and tic disorders are highly prevalent in psychiatric patients but often go unrecognized.
- Researchers suggest that roughly one in five routine psychiatric patients meets the criteria for autism.
A British Journal of Psychiatry editorial wants psychiatrists to put neurodivergence at the centre of mental health care as they are interconnected topics.
The editorial highlights the importance of identifying conditions such as ADHD, autism and tic disorders in psychiatric populations.
Among individuals with a first episode of psychosis, up to 40 percent are suggested to be neurodivergent.
Research shows significant overlap; ADHD co-occurs in up to two-thirds of autistic individuals, while autistic traits are present in half of those with ADHD.
According to the authors, recognition of interconnectedness is important as it helps in prevention and tailoring effective intervention.
The scale of the issue is significant. Researchers suggest that roughly one in five routine psychiatric patients meets the criteria for autism, while ADHD affects an estimated 22 percent.
The urgency is most visible in emergency settings. Recent findings indicate that while only 15 percent of patients in crisis have a confirmed autism diagnosis, as many as half meet the clinical screening criteria - suggesting a massive wave of unidentified neurodivergence.
Hugo Critchley, a lead author of the editorial and professor of psychiatry at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), told the media that the editorial challenges us as psychiatrists to recognise that neurodivergence is not peripheral to our work - it is central to it.
Conditions like ADHD and autism are common among our caseloads but too often go unrecognized, he added.
Clinicians at Sussex Partnership, who contributed to the editorial, are already piloting an adult ADHD assessment service in primary care to bridge these gaps.
