Evidence / 2022
Australian Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline For Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
Australian ADHD Professionals Association (AADPA) (2022). AADPA clinical practice guideline.
- Population
- Children, adolescents and adults with ADHD in Australia
- Sample
- Guideline (evidence review, not a single sample)
- Condition
- ADHD
- Medication focus
- ADHD pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment
- Jurisdiction
- Australia
- Last reviewed
- 1 September 2026
Plain-language finding
The Australian ADHD guideline provides identification, diagnosis and treatment recommendations, including pharmacological options, monitoring, and the importance of functioning and quality of life. It is the primary Australian clinical reference for ADHD care in this library.
Important limitation
Guidelines synthesise evidence and expert consensus at a point in time. They do not determine what is occurring for an individual, and they are not a substitute for clinical judgement.
Why we cite this
This is the current Australian evidence-based clinical practice guideline for ADHD and the local clinical north star for this site.
adhd · guideline · australia · pharmacology · diagnosis · training · late-diagnosis
Supported by clinical guidelines, regulatory information, systematic reviews, or well-established pharmacological knowledge. Still describes populations, not an individual.
Claims this source supports
For many people with ADHD, stimulant medicines can reduce core ADHD symptoms compared with placebo. That is a population finding, not a promise that a particular medicine will help a particular person.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
Some therapeutic stimulant regimens are commonly managed differently at cessation than many antidepressants. Rebound fatigue, mood change, appetite change or return of ADHD symptoms can still occur. This is not a rule that ADHD medicine can always be stopped immediately.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
ADHD and depression commonly co-occur. A person can have both. Treating one does not automatically resolve the other, and a later ADHD recognition does not mean an earlier depression diagnosis was simply wrong.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
Antidepressants and ADHD medicines are sometimes prescribed together. Combination is not automatically unsafe, and it is not automatically the cause of any later change. Overlapping effects on sleep, appetite, heart rate, anxiety and activation deserve a timeline, not a slogan.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
ADHD and autism commonly co-occur. They were not formally allowed as co-diagnoses until DSM-5 (2013). Having one does not rule out the other, and treating one does not automatically treat the other.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
Depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, OCD, trauma-related conditions, substance-use problems and eating disorders commonly co-occur with ADHD and/or autism. They may be separate, interacting, or both. A later developmental diagnosis does not mean the psychiatric diagnosis was imaginary.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
Bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders can share surface features with ADHD, autism, trauma or mood presentations. They can also coexist with neurodevelopmental conditions. They are not simply manifestations of neurodivergence. Correct differentiation can materially affect treatment.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
Rising ADHD diagnosis and medicine dispensing in Australia are evidence of rising recognised demand. They are not, by themselves, evidence that underlying ADHD prevalence has increased by the same factor. Prevalence, recognition, diagnosis and service demand are different quantities.
This claim retains disagreement in the literature. Open the classification to read both sides.
Last reviewed 2 September 2026
ADHD medication is not a set-and-forget prescription. Australian and NICE guidance expect review of benefit against adverse effects, with attention to sleep, appetite, heart rate and blood pressure, and — in children and adolescents — height and weight. Psychiatric symptoms that emerge or worsen belong in that review.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
AuDHD is community language for autism and ADHD occurring together. It is not a separate DSM or ICD diagnosis with its own criteria. DSM-5 (2013) removed the earlier rule that had treated the two as mutually exclusive. Each condition still has to be assessed on its own terms. One does not automatically explain the other.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026
Clinical guidelines model ADHD as a persistent pattern of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity, with features present in more than one setting and with several signs in childhood, even if recognition comes later. Educational examples of those features are not a diagnostic test, a severity score, or a reason to start or stop a medicine.
Last reviewed 1 September 2026