Review: Transition from children's to adult services: a review of guidelines and protocols for young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in England

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this recordBackground In recent years, the difficulty for young people with mental health issues who require a transition to adult services has been highlighted by several studies. In March 2018 the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) produced detailed guidelines for the diagnosis and management of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), updated from previous versions in 2008 and 2016, which included general recommendations for transition to an adult service. Yet, there is limited research on transition specifically for those with ADHD. This review aims to systematically identify, review and compare guidelines, specifically focussed on transition for young adults with ADHD within England. Methods Following the general principles for systematic reviewing as published by the University of York, 10 electronic databases were searched. Further documents were identified through searches of grey literature and additional sources. Results Sixteen documents were included. Results indicate very limited publically accessible guidelines in England for transition of young people with ADHD. Nearly all identified documents based their recommendations for transition on the existing NICE guidelines. Neurodevelopmental conditions such as ADHD are often encompassed within one overarching health policy rather than an individual policy for each condition. Conclusions Guidelines should be available and accessible to the public in order to inform those experiencing transition; adjusting the guidelines to local service context could also be beneficial and would adhere to the NICE recommendations. Further review could examine transition guideline policies for mental health in general to help identify and improve current practice.This study received no funding but does form a part of a larger study focusing on what happens to young people with ADHD when they are too old to stay in children's services; The ‘Children and Adolescents with ADHD in Transition between Children's services and Adult services’ project (Ford et al., 2015), which was funded by the National Institute for Health Research – Health Services and Delivery Research programme (project ref: 14/21/52)