ADHD

In 2025, 23,700 children and adolescents with ADHD received 245,000 contact days in outpatient care, compared with 130,000 contact days in 2019. In 2025, Vestre Viken had the highest contact-day rate. UNN, Finnmark and St. Olav also had high patient rates, reflecting that Vestre Viken had a higher number of contact days per patient.

Far more boys than girls receive treatment for ADHD. From the early school years onwards, a substantial number of both boys and girls receive treatment, but from the age of seven the number of boys is more than twice that of girls, and this difference persists until the early teenage years. During adolescence, the sex differences gradually diminish.

The contact-day rate for ADHD increased substantially during the five-year period up to 2025, both nationally and in the vast majority of catchment areas. Stavanger was the only catchment area with a marked reduction in the rate. Particularly large increases were observed in Lovisenberg, Diakonhjemmet, Finnmark, University Hospital of North Norway (UNN), and Vestre Viken.

In 2025, the contact-day rate ranged from 145 contact days per 1,000 children and adolescents in Vestfold to 330 per 1,000 in Vestre Viken. Overall, the geographical variation in the contact-day rate was considerable. This is consistent with previous studies of geographical variation in ADHD care (Widding-Havneraas et al. 2022, Surén et. al, 2018), which have demonstrated considerable variation in the provision of ADHD treatment. These studies also show that symptom burden explains only a limited proportion of the variation in healthcare utilisation (Widding-Havneraas et al. 2022), indicating that much of the geographical variation in treatment remains unexplained.

Contact days for ADHD were defined according to the following criteria:

• Individuals with a diagnosis code beginning with F90 in Axis 1 (all diagnostic subcodes) within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), or with a primary diagnosis coded F90 according to ICD-10 in specialist substance use treatment, somatic care, rehabilitation services, or by private specialists with public contracts.
• Outpatient treatment was defined as contacts where the patient was admitted and discharged on the same date, irrespective of the reported level of care. Both direct and indirect contacts were included. Only one contact per patient per day was counted.

Age: 0–17 years.

Rates were adjusted for age and sex using the direct standardisation method, using the Norwegian population in 2023 as the reference population.

Helse Førde is solely responsible for the interpretation and presentation of the data provided. The Norwegian Patient Registry (NPR) and the Norwegian Registry for Primary Health Care (KPR) are not responsible for analyses or interpretations based on data they have supplied.