Dr Max PembertonClinician

Biography

Dr Max Pemberton is a British consultant psychiatrist working full-time in the NHS in London, where he has spent over a decade in specialist eating disorder services and has also worked in addiction. He trained at UCL Medical School and holds membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (MRCPsych), as well as an elected fellowship of the World Psychiatric Association. Alongside his clinical work he is a weekly columnist for the Daily Mail, a contributor to The Spectator and Reader's Digest, and previously held a column at the Daily Telegraph for twelve years. He has presented BBC Radio 4's flagship health programme Inside Health and is a regular broadcast commentator on NHS, mental health and social-care issues. He is known for raising public awareness of mental health, addiction and NHS challenges through journalism and five books, and has attracted controversy for challenging established medical consensus, including on ADHD diagnosis rates.

References

1. 1.Dr Max Pemberton – personal website — Confirms current role, Daily Mail column, awards including RCPsych Public Educator of the Year and Mind Journalist of the Year
2. 2.Dr Max Pemberton, MRCPsych – Patient.info author profile — Confirms MRCPsych qualification, London-based NHS mental health work, Daily Mail column, Telegraph history, books including Radio 4 Book of the Week
3. 3.Max Pemberton – Hachette UK contributor page — Confirms clinical career breadth (paediatrics, mental health, surgery, geriatrics), journalism outlets, awards including Mind Journalist of the Year and RCPsych Public Educator of the Year, Medical Journalists' Association awards, BBC Radio 4 Inside Health presenter
4. 4.About the Authors – The Weight Loss Prescription — Confirms role as consultant psychiatrist, over a decade in specialist NHS eating disorder services, RCPsych Public Educator of the Year, McLean-DB Recovery+ Lifetime Achievement Award in Psychiatry, elected Fellow of the World Psychiatric Association, ongoing academic research in mental health
5. 5.Who Is Max Pemberton? NHS Psychiatrist Who Challenges Tenet That ADHD Is a Medical Condition – IBTimes UK

Expertise

Cited on

• Hospital discharge / bed-blocking
• Mental health

Stated areas of expertise

• Mental health and psychiatry
• Eating disorders
• Addiction
• NHS policy and workforce
• Public understanding of psychiatry
• ADHD and neurodevelopmental debate

Notable achievements

• Named Public Educator of the Year by the Royal College of Psychiatrists (2010) and won the Morris Markowe Public Education Prize (2010) for his piece on the recruitment crisis in psychiatry. Source ↗
• Won the Mind Journalist of the Year Award (2010) and awards from the Medical Journalists' Association (Witty Writing Award 2012; Story of the Year Award 2013). Source ↗
• Presented Channel 4 documentary 'The Great ADHD Myth?' (2025), questioning conventional thinking on rising ADHD diagnosis rates. Source ↗
• Debut book Trust Me, I'm a (Junior) Doctor (2008) was selected as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. Source ↗
• Elected Fellow of the World Psychiatric Association and member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Source ↗

What they’ve said

• “ADHD is a "social construct" rather than a medical condition, and that schools should adapt to better support a wider range of children rather than medicating them into fitting into a restrictive norm.”

  NHS psychiatrist · Hospital discharge / bed-blocking · 27 Aug 2026 · Rising number of people seeking ADHD diagnosis without treatment, say experts ↗

• “The programme was presented by the NHS psychiatrist Dr Max Pemberton, who concluded that ADHD was a 'social construct' rather than a medical condition.”

  NHS psychiatrist · Mental health · 27 Aug 2026 · ‘Biased’ Channel 4 programme on ADHD misrepresented my views, says expert ↗

Source references

1. Rising number of people seeking ADHD diagnosis without treatment, say expertstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
2. ‘Biased’ Channel 4 programme on ADHD misrepresented my views, says experttheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026

Contact & links

• Websitehttps://maxpemberton.com/published here ↗
• Xhttps://x.com/MaxPemberton
• Staff pagehttps://patient.info/authors/dr-max-pemberton

Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.