2025 promises further advancements that will continue to shape ADHD diagnosis, treatment, and support for practitioners as well as individuals across their lifespan.
We spoke with our US-based clinical advisor, Dr Corina Weir, to highlight the emerging trends and breakthroughs expected to shape the ADHD care landscape.
1. Personalized treatment plans
The “one-size-fits-all” ADHD treatment approach is continuing to decline as awareness and research supports personalized approaches. Now, patients have more treatment options and are becoming increasingly involved in the conversation about their own care.
In 2024, we saw substantial progress in clinics across many countries optimizing treatment plans and considering individual variability in symptom profiles, life stages, and biological factors. Treatment plans can consist of a variety of options, including lifestyle modifications, medication, therapy and other approaches, and recently systematic reviews highlight the benefits of combined approaches. We expect to see this to continue to develop – especially with the pending release of US ADHD adult guidelines (mentioned later in this post).
Diagnosing and treating women and girls
While awareness is growing around the differences in ADHD experiences between males and females, guidance on diagnosis and treatment for women and girls highlights the need to consider complex stages in life that women experience and the interplay of hormones and ADHD symptoms.
Research by Young et al. (2020) and Dorani et al. (2021) acknowledges sex differences in the condition, including the importance of addressing hormonal fluctuations and life stage complexities in female patients, for example during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause.
Medication response testing
Today, many clinicians are still relying on trial-and-error prescribing when treating ADHD (Cortese, 2023).
According to a survey, on average, children try 2.75 different medications and adults 2.56 prescriptions before finding one that works for them.
Recent studies (Gustafsson & Hansen, 2023, Sanyal et al. 2024) demonstrate how individualized medication response testing can minimize trial-and-error prescribing, leading to faster symptom relief and fewer side effects, targeting the holistic functioning of the individual, rather than the core symptoms symptomatically.
Monitoring symptoms after medication has been prescribed can help you to make changes where required and make sure treatments are personalized for individual patients.
Subjective rating scales can give you more information on patient progress following medication, however has limitations due to bias and unreliability. Objective testing provides data on individual symptoms and allows for easy tracking and monitoring over time.
2. Advancing research on ADHD in girls and women
As mentioned previously, girls and women have been historically under researched, underdiagnosed, and undertreated, however ongoing advocacy has resulted in more focus on this demographic. During ADHD Awareness Month in 2024, the community saw a strong emphasis on female’s unique challenges, with leaders like Professor Sandra Kooij amplifying the conversation through webinars and research initiatives.
Studies continue to explore how ADHD symptoms manifest differently in females compared to males, often leading to later diagnosis and treatment. New studies are expected to delve deeper into how hormonal shifts exacerbate ADHD symptoms and which tailored interventions can reduce these effects.
Learn more about the interplay of women’s hormones and ADHD symptoms with our webinar.
3. Long-awaited guidelines for adult ADHD diagnosis and treatment
In the US, the absence of formal guidelines for diagnosing and treating ADHD in adults has left clinicians navigating a complex care landscape with great difficulty.
Next year, the long awaited American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD) guidelines will be developed and published to support practitioners.
What to expect from APSARD guidelines
These guidelines will be based on research and tested metrics from the past five years – providing much-needed standardization in the diagnosis and treatment process, offering evidence-based protocols.
They are designed to be accessible to practitioners across specialties, supporting those less familiar with ADHD to introduce and follow robust care pathways.
4. Technology-driven innovations in ADHD care
Telehealth and digital health solutions have become indispensable in ADHD care. According to October 2024 CDC data, nearly 46% of adults with ADHD reported using telehealth services at some point, with many relying on these platforms for prescriptions or therapy.
Since March 2020, approximately one third of adults with ADHD used telehealth services for prescription of medication or therapy for ADHD. Modernizing and streamlining the diagnostic process ensures efficiency and accuracy which saves both time and money.
These services bridge access gaps, enabling patients in underserved areas to connect with specialists.
Objective ADHD diagnosis and treatment solutions like QbCheck are helping clinicians use a scalable and standardized way to use data-driven testing. Objective ADHD tests offer a consistent and evidence-based measure of ADHD symptoms, supporting clinicians in making data-driven decisions.
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