From 1 December, the state’s 9600 GPs will be able to initiate, modify and continue psychostimulant prescriptions for adults with ADHD.
For the first time in Australia, a state will expand ADHD prescribing powers to GPs without requiring them to undertake additional mandatory training.
Speaking at the RACGP’s national conference in Brisbane on Saturday, Queensland health minister Tim Nicholls announced that from 1 December, specialist GPs in the state would be able to “initiate, modify and continue to prescribe psychostimulant medication for the treatments of adults with ADHD”.
The current rules only allow GPs to prescribe psychostimulant medications to people with ADHD under the age of 17; adults with ADHD must access psychostimulant prescriptions from a specialist psychiatrist.
RACGP Queensland chair Dr Cath Hester said the change to allow GPs to prescribe for their adult patients was “a very natural, very safe progression”.
“Queensland GPs will be following the established national guidelines for ADHD prescribing and management,” she told media.
“These have been developed in consultation with medical specialists like psychiatrists and paediatric specialists across Australia, and Queensland GPs are already well placed because we have already been diagnosing and managing ADHD in children from the ages of four to 18.”
There were no additional training requirements, she said, because many GPs already provide ADHD care to paediatric patients.
“GPs in Queensland undergo rigorous specialist training to gain their fellowship in general practice, and part of this training is to provide the comprehensive and complex management of conditions that are chronic, such as ADHD,” Dr Hester said.
“It actually makes general practice the natural home for managing conditions like ADHD, which we know are life-long and that often present in childhood and often present through families.
“GPs … already provide complex mental health and physical care for our patients, safely and at a very accessible and low cost for communities all the way across Queensland.”
Dr Hester also allowed that, while additional training would not be mandatory, there were likely to be some GPs who would still choose to undertake formal upskilling before they would be comfortable prescribing for ADHD.
Mr Nicholls said Queensland’s government was committed to removing barriers and allowing all clinicians to “utilise their skillset to the fullest”.
“All the colleges have had an opportunity to make a contribution to this, but ultimately the government has to make a decision about the best care that we can provide to Queenslanders in the most affordable and accessible way,” he said.
“And the experience, as I say, with children up to the age of 17 being prescribed [psychostimulants] by their GP, has been a very positive experience.
“It’s provided better health outcomes and better care in the community and more affordable care.
“This is a natural extension of that particular process, and it now sees GPs who are far more readily accessible, who are well known to their patients and who have a full clinical history of that patient, know their circumstances, able to manage those symptoms and to be able to prescribe.”
AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen, a GP practising in Brisbane, told The Medical Republic that the change would make it easier for some patients, but said there was still a need to support collaboration between GPs and psychiatrists.
“We’ve conveyed to the minister the need to make sure patients understand that not everything may change overnight,” she said.
“We now need to make sure that GPs in Queensland have the necessary rapid access to resources to help them upskill where they choose to in the diagnosis, the assessment of mental health conditions, diagnosis of ADHD, non-pharmacological options, and then also how to manage medications for people who want to start medicines or maintain their medicines.”
The announcement comes amid an ongoing shortage of ADHD medicines nationwide.
The RACGP’s 2025 conference was held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre between 14 November and 16 November.
