The power of words: respectful language in ADHD research

Blandine French¹, Tycho J Dekkers², Isabella Barclay³, Melissa H Black⁴, Sven Bölte⁵, David Daley⁶, Julia Ernst⁷, Madeleine Groom⁸, Branko M van Hulst⁹, Maxime de Jong¹⁰, Anna Kaiser¹¹, Julia Kerner Auch Koener¹², Jonna Kuntsi¹³, Giorgia Michelini¹⁴, Anna Price¹⁵, Diane Purper-Ouakil¹⁶, Joske Rijmen¹⁷, Jan R Wiersema¹⁷, Dora Wynchank¹⁰, Joanna Martin¹⁸

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, Academic Unit of Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
² Accare Child Study Center, Groningen, Netherlands; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands; Levvel, Specialists for Youth and Family, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
³ Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics & Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK.
⁴ Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Centre for Psychiatry Research, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Curtin School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
⁵ Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Centre for Psychiatry Research, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden; Curtin Autism Research Group, Curtin School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA Australia.
⁶ Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
⁷ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany; German Center for Mental Health, partner site Mannheim-Heidelberg-Ulm, Germany.
⁸ School of Medicine, Academic Unit of Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; NIHR MindTech MedTech Co-operative, Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
⁹ LUMC Curium, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands.
¹⁰ PsyQ, Expertise Centre Adult ADHD, The Hague, Netherlands.
¹¹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
¹² IDeA Research Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institute for Psychology in Education, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
¹³ Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
¹⁴ Centre for Brain and Behaviour, Department of Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
¹⁵ Science of ADHD and Neurodevelopment Collaboration, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
¹⁶ CHU Montpellier, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit (MPEA1), University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France; INSERM CESP U1018, Villejuif, France.
¹⁷ EXPLORA, Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
¹⁸ Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics & Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK. Electronic address: martinjm1@cardiff.ac.uk.

PMID: 40706601
DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(25)00167-1

The power of words: respectful language in ADHD research

Blandine French et al. Lancet Psychiatry. 2025.

. 2025 Jul 21:S2215-0366(25)00167-1.

doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(25)00167-1. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ School of Medicine, Academic Unit of Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
² Accare Child Study Center, Groningen, Netherlands; Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University Medical Center Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands; Levvel, Specialists for Youth and Family, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
³ Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics & Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK.
⁴ Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Centre for Psychiatry Research, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Curtin School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.
⁵ Center of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Department of Women's and Children's Health, Centre for Psychiatry Research, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden; Curtin Autism Research Group, Curtin School of Allied Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA Australia.
⁶ Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
⁷ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany; German Center for Mental Health, partner site Mannheim-Heidelberg-Ulm, Germany.
⁸ School of Medicine, Academic Unit of Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; NIHR MindTech MedTech Co-operative, Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK; NIHR Nottingham Biomedical Research Centre, Institute of Mental Health, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK.
⁹ LUMC Curium, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, Netherlands.
¹⁰ PsyQ, Expertise Centre Adult ADHD, The Hague, Netherlands.
¹¹ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Mannheim, Germany.
¹² IDeA Research Center for Individual Development and Adaptive Education of Children at Risk, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Institute for Psychology in Education, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
¹³ Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
¹⁴ Centre for Brain and Behaviour, Department of Psychology, School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, UK.
¹⁵ Science of ADHD and Neurodevelopment Collaboration, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK.
¹⁶ CHU Montpellier, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit (MPEA1), University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France; INSERM CESP U1018, Villejuif, France.
¹⁷ EXPLORA, Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
¹⁸ Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics & Wolfson Centre for Young People's Mental Health, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF24 4HQ, UK. Electronic address: martinjm1@cardiff.ac.uk.

PMID: 40706601
DOI: 10.1016/S2215-0366(25)00167-1

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Conflict of interest statement

BF reports personal fees and non-financial support from Takeda and Medice. SB reports acting as an author, consultant, or lecturer for Medice, Takeda, and LinusBio; receiving royalties for textbooks and diagnostic tools from Hogrefe, UTB, Ernst Reinhardt, Kohlhammer, and Liber; and being a partner in NeuroSupportSolutions International. DD reports providing educational talks for Medice and Shire/Takeda; received grants, personal fees and non-financial support from Shire/Takeda, Medice, ACAMH Learn, and the New Forest Parenting Programme; book royalties from the sale of a self-help version of the New Forest Parenting Programme; and compensation for the provision of training and supervision in the New Forest Parenting Programme. JK has delivered talks at educational events sponsored by Medice, with all funds directed to King's College London to support ADHD research. DP-O reports honoraria from Medice for lectures or participation in a speaker's bureau and travel or congress support from HAC Pharma. DW is an owner of the ADHD Powerbank, an online video platform with educational videos about ADHD. JK, SB, DP-O, and TJD are in the steering committee of EUNETHYDIS, which receives financial support from Medice and Takeda. All other authors declare no competing interests. BF was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council grant (ES/X000141/1). TJD was funded by a VENI grant from ZonMw (the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development). JM was funded by the Welsh Government through Health and Care Research Wales via a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Advanced Fellowship (NIHR-FS(A)-2022). BMvH was funded by an Innovations in Youth Care grant from ZonMw. JKaK was funded by the DFG (German Research Foundation; 508725348). AP is a Development and Skills Enhancement Award Holder (NIHR304122) and was funded by the NIHR for this research project. The views expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR, the UK National Health Service, or the UK Department of Health and Social Care. JK was funded by a Medical Research Council (MRC) programme grant (MR/Y003209/1), an EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant (965381) and a MRC project grant (MR/X02220X/1). This Comment emerged from a Special Interest Group on language use in ADHD, following the annual meeting of the European Network for ADHD in 2024. The authors include experts with lived experiences, researchers, and clinicians across Europe, offering an international perspective informed by diverse backgrounds.

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The power of words: respectful language in ADHD research

Affiliations

The power of words: respectful language in ADHD research

Authors

Affiliations

Conflict of interest statement

LinkOut - more resources

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