Qld GPs to diagnose ADHD in adults

​The Queensland government, together with Australia’s professional association for General Practitioners (the RACGP), announced in November 2025 that every GP in Qld will be able to diagnose and treat adults with ADHD from 1st December 2025!
This follows from Qld being the first state in Aus to allow GPs to diagnose and treat children and teenagers with ADHD (as opposed to patients previously needing to be referred to a psychologist, psychiatrist or paediatrician for diagnosis and “treatment”.
But is this really a good thing?!
Absolutely NOT, for the following reasons:

1. The GPs get no additional training to be able to diagnose their patients with ADHD!
2. How the hell is a GP going to be properly able to diagnose anyone with ADHD in their usual 5-minute consultations?! Oh, that’s right, they already do… I’ve seen a number of patients who were diagnosed with ADHD (well before the Qld government and RACGP allowed this) within their usual 5-minute sessions. No screening questionnaires were done, no testing was done, no questioning of teachers or others, just an observational diagnosis in less than 5 minutes!
3. What is the GP going to do for ADHD? Just prescribe questionable medications, that’s all! They won’t need to refer patients to more specialist practitioners who DO have more time to diagnose ADHD and recommend therapies other than just medications
4. GPs are already stretched to the limit with the numbers of patients they see each day. Waiting times to see a GP are so long now, that they are booked out now a number of weeks in advance.

I am surprised that the RACGP is in favour of this move, as GPs are “generalist” practitioners and not specialists.
The only benefits I see from this plan, is that the waiting time for diagnosis will be much quicker. But too quick, after no investigations. And cheaper, with many assessment clinics charging thousands of dollars for a diagnosis.
Many GPs and doctors had some interesting and negative opinions of this plan on the RACGP website, with comments such as the following:

1. This is not a good idea without any additional training
2. ADHD is a complex condition which is easy to recognise but difficult to diagnose and treat, especially without additional training
3. I don’t want this. I disagree with the over-diagnosis and over-medication of ADHD, especially in functional and competent adults
4. The threshold for diagnosis and treatment is too low now. Many people want to have ADHD to get access to stimulant medications
5. I do not believe there has been any additional training added as part of medical student or GP training to safely allow this to happen
6. Why are we not more concerned by the “soaring demand for ADHD diagnosis and management”? I think there is a broader issue here than just access to diagnosis, and what is almost invariable pharmacologic intervention. I am concerned that there is an ever increasing number of children and adults requiring an ever increasing range of psychoactive medications to function. I am also concerned that as a GP, I am required to be increasingly complicit in this increasing demand. There is a major problem here.

As I said to a patient today, going from a quick diagnosis to prescribed medications isn’t going to help someone with ADHD to getting their health back. What just doesn’t happen in this medical process is testing and investigations to find what is causing the ADHD in each person.
There are ALWAYS root causes to ADHD in children and adults, and it’s also always a combination of a number of causes and factors, which can be different in each person. To truly reduce ADHD symptoms and its other related symptoms, all the root causes and factors need to be identified and treated! This can reduce the ADHD symptoms, and even reverse the ADHD diagnosis. Without relying on stimulant medications and all their side effects.
This is why I offer a personalised, root-cause focused treatment approach for ADHD and related mental health and neurological and neurodevelopmental conditions. More info on this on my new website – www.adhdnaturopath.com.au
 
Stay healthy!
 
References:
RACGP. (2025). ‘Game changer’: Queensland GPs allowed to diagnose and treat ADHD. Retrieved 2ns January 2025 from https://www1.racgp.org.au/newsgp/professional/game-changer-all-queensland-gps-to-diagnose-and-tr