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ADHD rules by state

ADHD rules in Queensland

Since 1 December 2025, Queensland law has allowed a GP who holds specialist registration in general practice to assess an adult for ADHD and to start, adjust or continue stimulant medicines, up to a maximum daily dose set in the regulation for the particular medicine, without applying to Queensland Health for a separate approval. Psychiatrists can do the same for an adult of any age, and paediatricians can for adults under 25; other doctors, and any doctor who needs to go above that dose limit, have to apply for approval first, and for an adult that application has to name a psychiatrist who supports the treatment. Being allowed to prescribe is not the same as being obliged to: whether you are assessed, diagnosed or prescribed anything is a clinical decision, not every practice offers adult ADHD assessment, and non-stimulant ADHD medicines sit outside these rules altogether.

Last checked 2026-08-21. These rules change, sometimes at short notice. We date every page and cite the source we used, so you can check it yourself. Nothing here is advice about your own treatment — your prescriber and your state health department are the authorities on that.

Who can diagnose you

Who is allowed to make the diagnosis here?

Queensland's medicines law does not say who may diagnose ADHD in an adult. Diagnosis is governed by a practitioner's own scope of practice under the national registration law, not by Queensland's drugs-and-poisons law. What Queensland law does regulate is who may prescribe.

We searched the full text of both Queensland instruments. The Medicines and Poisons Act 2019 (Qld) contains no provision about diagnosis at all, and the Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Regulation 2021 (Qld) contains one unrelated reference ('performing a procedure or diagnostic test'). Neither instrument conditions a prescriber's authorisation on who made the diagnosis. In practice the constraint that matters is the prescribing authorisation, because the Regulation ties each authorisation to a class of practitioner. There is one route where a specialist diagnosis is effectively required: if the treating doctor is NOT in an authorised class and has to apply to Queensland Health for a prescribing approval, the current application form (version 5, December 2025) requires the applicant to name the relevant specialist who made the diagnosis and the treatment plan, to give the date the patient was last reviewed by them, and to attach a document from that specialist supporting the diagnosis and treatment plan. Queensland Health's December 2025 fact sheet states that for an adult with ADHD that supporting specialist must be a psychiatrist, 'not a specialist GP'. Queensland Health also gives specific guidance for people treated since childhood: where a person who was prescribed as a child was not diagnosed by a paediatrician or psychiatrist, 'the patient should be referred to a psychiatrist to review the diagnosis and ongoing treatment prior to turning 25. Alternatively, a specialist GP may continue treatment where appropriate.' The RACGP's national position statement says 'ADHD diagnosis and management is within a specialist GP's scope of practice.' Being authorised is not the same as being obliged: whether an assessment is offered, whether a diagnosis is made, and whether anything is prescribed remain clinical decisions, and not every general practice offers adult ADHD assessment.

Who can start treatment

Who can start you on medicine, and what approval do they need?

For stimulant medicines, three classes of doctor may start treatment for an adult without any Queensland Health approval: a psychiatrist (an adult of any age), a GP who holds specialist registration in general practice (an adult), and a paediatrician (an adult under 25). All three are capped at a maximum daily dose set in the Regulation for the particular medicine. Any other doctor, and any doctor who needs to prescribe above that dose, must first obtain a prescribing approval from Queensland Health. Non-stimulant ADHD medicines sit outside this framework: they are not restricted medicines in Queensland, so any registered medical practitioner may prescribe them without an approval and without being in a specialist class.

The stimulant rules are in schedule 6 of the Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Regulation 2021 (Qld). Part 2, division 5A (ss 26A-26C, inserted with effect from 1 December 2025) creates the class 'a medical practitioner who is a specialist registrant in general practice' and authorises that person to prescribe, give a treatment dose of, dispense, administer, give a purchase order for and possess a psychostimulant medicine for 'adult ADHD', in each case 'up to an amount that does not exceed the maximum daily dose, if any, for the medicine'. Division 16 (ss 48-50) does the same for a specialist registrant in psychiatry, with no upper age limit, and also subject to the maximum daily dose. Division 15 (ss 45-47) covers a specialist registrant in paediatrics for 'young adult ADHD', defined as 'ADHD of an adult patient who is under 25 years'. The Regulation itself says only 'adult ADHD means ADHD of an adult patient' and does not define 'adult'; the 18-and-over figure comes from Queensland Health's fact sheet ('an adult aged 18 years or over'), not from the division. A doctor without one of those specialist registrations is not authorised for an adult at all: schedule 6, part 1, division 5 (ss 11-13) limits the general medical practitioner authorisation to narcolepsy at any age and to ADHD or brain injury of a child patient aged 4 or more. Nurse practitioners have no adult ADHD authorisation other than continuing institutional treatment. A hospital registrar may prescribe a restricted medicine relating to the specialty area they are working in. The approval instrument is a 'prescribing approval' under s 67 of the Medicines and Poisons Act 2019 (Qld). Applications are made to the chief executive in the approved form (Act s 75) and are decided case by case by the chief executive of Queensland Health or their delegate; non-QOTP applications go to medicines.applications@health.qld.gov.au and the contact point is the Medicines Approvals and Regulation Unit. Section 75(c) requires an application to be accompanied by 'the fee prescribed by regulation', but schedule 19 of the Regulation prescribes fees only for manufacturing, wholesale and S2 retail licence applications - no fee is prescribed for a prescribing approval. For an adult with ADHD, the applicant 'is required to have the ongoing support of a psychiatrist (not a specialist GP)', must name that psychiatrist and give the date the patient was last reviewed. To prescribe above the maximum daily dose for an adult, ANY prescriber - including a psychiatrist or a specialist GP - must apply, and Queensland Health says that in most cases the applicant will have to provide support from, or demonstrate a second opinion or peer review by, a psychiatrist. Approvals cannot be transferred (Act s 72) and their term is decided by the chief executive (Act s 69); the application form states that approvals 'will not usually be granted for more than two (2) years'. Queensland Health also states that approvals will not be granted merely because prescribing software demands an approval number in circumstances where none is legally required. Queensland Health imposed no mandatory ADHD-specific training on specialist GPs, and the pathway requires no psychiatrist referral, co-signature or notification to the department; the explanatory notes record that the RANZCP and the Australasian ADHD Professionals Association recommended mandatory training and that Queensland Health concluded specialist GPs 'already possess the requisite skills and training'. Obligations that do apply to every prescriber: stimulant medicines are monitored medicines, so s 41 of the Act requires a check of QScript, the real-time monitoring database, before prescribing, dispensing or giving a treatment dose (subject to exemptions in schedule 18, part 1A of the Regulation); s 93 of the Regulation requires compliance with the departmental standard on monitored medicines; s 86(1)(m) requires the prescription to state details of the prescriber's authorisation to prescribe the restricted medicine; and s 87(2)(c) requires words indicating the condition being treated, or the words 'specified condition'. On non-stimulants: schedule 22 defines 'psychostimulant medicine' by reference to specific Schedule 8 substances, schedule 2 part 1 lists the restricted medicines and schedule 2 part 4 the monitored medicines, and non-stimulant ADHD medicines appear on none of those lists. Schedule 6, part 1, division 1 (ss 1-2) authorises any medical practitioner registered under the national law to prescribe a non-restricted medicine, with no condition-specific or specialist-class limit and no dose ceiling. So the specialist-class and approval machinery described above simply does not apply to non-stimulant ADHD medicines in Queensland - though whether a non-stimulant is clinically appropriate is a matter for the treating doctor, and Commonwealth subsidy conditions are a separate question we could not confirm (see 'unconfirmed'). The per-medicine dose ceilings are set out in schedule 22 of the Regulation and are deliberately not reproduced here, because they exist only as figures attached to named prescription-only medicines.

Who can continue it

Once you are stable, who can keep prescribing?

The same three classes may continue and modify an adult's stimulant treatment on the same terms - no approval, no departmental notification, and no expiry attached to the authorisation itself - provided the amount stays at or below the maximum daily dose. A paediatrician's authority ends on the patient's 25th birthday. A prescribing approval held by a previous doctor cannot be handed to a new one.

Schedule 6 of the Regulation authorises each class to prescribe, give a treatment dose of, dispense, administer, give a purchase order for and possess the medicine within the stated scope; nothing in those divisions attaches a duration, a review interval or a renewal requirement to the class authorisation. Two situations still require an approval. First, if the patient's established dose is above the maximum daily dose, the new prescriber must obtain their own prescribing approval, and Queensland Health says the application should include the rationale for the higher dose and that in most cases the prescriber will be required to provide support from, or demonstrate a second opinion or peer review by, a psychiatrist. Second, if the new prescriber is not in one of the three authorised classes, they need an approval and, for an adult, must name a supporting psychiatrist. Approvals are personal: s 72(1) of the Act says 'a substance authority can not be transferred', and s 72(2) cancels it if the sole holder dies; Queensland Health puts it as 'a prescribing approval only authorises the approval holder to prescribe the medicine and cannot be transferred to another person'. Separately, a medical practitioner or a nurse practitioner may prescribe for 'continuing institutional treatment' where the patient is in a hospital or custodial facility - schedule 6, part 1, division 3 requires that the patient 'was being treated with the medicine within a reasonable period before' admission, being taken into custody, or being treated by that practitioner, and the medicine is prescribed for administration under the supervision of a registrar or an authorised specialist. Queensland Health's transition guidance for a person prescribed as a child who is now an adult: if they were not diagnosed by a paediatrician or psychiatrist as a child and the current prescriber is not otherwise authorised, they should be referred to a psychiatrist to review the diagnosis and ongoing treatment before turning 25, or alternatively a specialist GP may continue treatment where appropriate. For non-stimulant ADHD medicines none of this applies - continuation is an ordinary prescribing decision by any registered medical practitioner.

Telehealth

Can this happen by video, and does the practitioner have to be here?

Queensland's medicines law contains no telehealth, in-person, face-to-face or physical-examination requirement - we confirmed this by full-text search of both instruments. The limits that apply are national, not Queensland-specific: the Medical Board of Australia requires a real-time consultation before prescribing, and Medicare rebate eligibility for GP telehealth changed on 1 November 2025.

Searching the full consolidated text of the Medicines and Poisons Act 2019 (Qld) and the Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Regulation 2021 (Qld) returns zero occurrences of 'telehealth', 'in person', 'in-person', 'face-to-face' or 'physical examination'. No Queensland provision requires an in-person consultation before or during ADHD treatment, and no minimum number of face-to-face reviews is imposed. The Medical Board of Australia's guidelines 'Telehealth consultations with patients' (the guidelines document carries 'Effective date: 1 September 2023') say the Board supports responsible telehealth but that it 'is not appropriate for all medical consultations and should not be considered as a routine substitute for in-person consultations'; that video is preferable to telephone where practical and telehealth 'is generally most appropriate in the context of a continuing clinical relationship with a patient that also involves in-person consultations'; and that the guidelines 'do not prevent or discourage one-off telehealth consultations'. The hard limit is on prescribing without any consultation: 'Prescribing or providing healthcare for a patient without a real-time direct consultation, whether in-person, via video or telephone, is not good practice and is not supported by the Board', which expressly captures asynchronous requests by text, email, live-chat or online based on a completed health questionnaire where the practitioner has never spoken with the patient. We are NOT stating that the guidelines affirmatively permit a first consultation by telehealth; the guidelines do not say that, and an earlier draft of this page claimed it. Separately, and financially rather than legally: since 1 November 2025 a Medicare rebate for a GP telehealth service requires either that the practitioner meets the 'eligible telehealth practitioner' test (that practitioner, or that practice, provided the patient a face-to-face Medicare-billed service in the last 12 months) or that the patient is registered in MyMedicare and the service is delivered by their registered practice. Exemptions exist (patients under 12 months, people experiencing homelessness, people affected by a declared natural disaster, services at an Aboriginal Medical Service or Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Service, urgent after-hours services, and some other listed item groups). Telehealth items are also unavailable to admitted hospital patients and where either the patient or the provider is overseas at the time of service. On cross-border practice, Queensland law applies according to where the PRESCRIBER is physically located. A prescriber physically outside Queensland is an 'Interstate Prescriber' who 'must act in accordance with the respective laws and requirements of that jurisdiction' and must be authorised to prescribe in their own jurisdiction. Queensland Health states that 'Prescribing approvals cannot be granted to a prescriber practising interstate, even if they are prescribing psychostimulants for a patient in Queensland', and that approvals 'can only be granted for prescribing activities that occur in Queensland'. A Queensland pharmacy may still dispense an interstate prescription: under s 120(c)(ii) of the Regulation the prescription is valid for dispensing in Queensland if the prescriber is authorised under a corresponding or other law and the prescription carries the information required by ss 86-88 - for a stimulant that means details of the prescriber's authorisation (for example an approval number from their home jurisdiction, or their relevant qualifications) under s 86(1)(m), plus words indicating the condition treated or the words 'specified condition' under s 87(2)(c). The statutory duty to check QScript applies only to practitioners prescribing, dispensing or giving a treatment dose in Queensland; interstate prescribers may register for and use QScript in certain authorised circumstances.

If you move here

What happens to a diagnosis and treatment from another state?

Queensland has no transfer, notification or re-approval process for someone who arrives already diagnosed and treated elsewhere, and nothing in Queensland's medicines law requires the diagnosis to be repeated. What decides the position is who the new Queensland-based prescriber is, and whether the established dose is at or below the maximum daily dose.

The authorisations in schedule 6 of the Regulation are not conditioned on where, when or by whom the diagnosis was made, so a Queensland psychiatrist, specialist GP, or (for a person under 25) paediatrician may take the person on and continue treatment with no application to Queensland Health, provided the amount stays at or below the maximum daily dose. Two things can stop that. If the established dose is above the maximum daily dose, the new prescriber must obtain a prescribing approval, and Queensland Health says the application should include the rationale for the higher dose and that in most cases it will need support from, or a documented second opinion or peer review by, a psychiatrist - so a higher-dose regimen that was routine elsewhere can require an application on arrival. If the new prescriber is a doctor without specialist registration in one of those fields, they are not authorised for an adult with ADHD at all and need a prescribing approval, which for an adult must name a supporting psychiatrist and the date the patient was last reviewed by them. Any prescribing approval held by the person's previous doctor is personal and cannot be transferred. In the meantime, the person's existing out-of-state prescriber remains bound by their own jurisdiction's law, cannot obtain a Queensland approval, and a Queensland pharmacy may dispense their prescription only if the prescriber is lawfully authorised in their home jurisdiction and the prescription carries the prescriber's authorisation details and words indicating the condition treated (or the words 'specified condition'), as ss 86-88 and s 113(2) of the Regulation require; prescriptions missing that information are not dispensable in Queensland. Someone who moves as a young adult while still under a paediatrician should note that the paediatrician authorisation stops at the 25th birthday. Where a childhood diagnosis was not made by a paediatrician or psychiatrist, Queensland Health's guidance is referral to a psychiatrist to review the diagnosis and ongoing treatment before the person turns 25, or continuation by a specialist GP where appropriate. Non-stimulant ADHD medicines are outside this entirely and may be continued by any registered medical practitioner. We could not confirm one thing an interstate arrival will care about: whether an interstate diagnosis is accepted in practice by Queensland prescribers is a clinical and professional-standards question, not one the Regulation answers, and we found no Queensland regulator document addressing it.

What we could not confirm

We went looking for these and could not find a primary source. We would rather show you the gap than fill it with something that sounds right. Take these to your prescriber or the department directly.

  • PBS and Medicare subsidy. We could not confirm from a current PBS schedule or Services Australia page whether a specialist GP prescribing for an adult attracts a PBS-subsidised benefit, or whether the PBS restriction still requires a specialist prescriber for initial adult treatment. State authorisation to prescribe and Commonwealth subsidy are separate questions, so a lawful prescription is not automatically a subsidised one. Searches returned only dated PBAC and DUSC analysis documents (2008-2023), which are not a reliable statement of the position in August 2026.
  • Which AHPRA qualifications satisfy 'specialist registrant in general practice' in schedule 6, part 2, division 5A. Both the Regulation and Queensland Health use the AHPRA-register formulation without naming fellowships. Commercial sources asserted particular fellowships; we did not verify that against an AHPRA or Medical Board primary source and are not publishing it.
  • Whether a diagnosis made by a psychologist or another non-medical practitioner is sufficient for a Queensland prescriber to act on. Queensland's medicines law does not address diagnosis at all, and we found no Queensland regulator document specifying an acceptable source of an adult ADHD diagnosis. On the prescribing-approval route the application form does require a supporting medical specialist, but that is the exception, not the general rule.
  • Whether an interstate diagnosis is portable into the Queensland pathway in practice. Nothing in the Regulation conditions a prescriber's authorisation on where the diagnosis was made, but that is an inference from statutory silence, not an affirmative statement by any source, so we have not published it as a rule.
  • The specific exemptions from the mandatory QScript check. Their existence is confirmed by s 41(3) of the Act and by Queensland Health, and they sit in schedule 18, part 1A of the Regulation, but we did not read and are not describing the individual exemptions.
  • Whether Queensland Health has issued any guidance directed specifically at telehealth-only or online ADHD assessment and prescribing services. We located none. The telehealth position above rests on the absence of any provision in the Queensland Act and Regulation plus the national Medical Board guidelines, not on a Queensland telehealth instrument.
  • Wait times, public and private. There is no published Queensland-specific wait time for adult ADHD assessment from any government, college or parliamentary source. Queensland Health publishes specialist outpatient performance only by urgency category, with no ADHD or adult-psychiatry breakdown. Figures circulating online trace back to commercial ADHD clinic marketing and were not verifiable; we have not published them.
  • Whether adults can access ADHD assessment through the public system in Queensland. We could not confirm this either way. Queensland's statewide Clinical Prioritisation Criteria (last updated 4 March 2026) lists no adult psychiatry or adult mental health category, and ADHD searches return only paediatric entries - but that absence is not proof that no Hospital and Health Service assesses adult ADHD, and we found no Queensland Health statement expressly excluding it. Claims that specific named hospitals run adult ADHD clinics appeared only on commercial sites and were not verified.
  • Typical private assessment cost in Queensland. No government source found. We are not publishing an unverified rebate or fee figure.
  • Uptake since 1 December 2025 - how many Queensland specialist GPs are now assessing or prescribing for adult ADHD, whether availability differs between metropolitan and regional Queensland, and whether the reform has measurably changed any waiting list.
  • Whether the December 2025 'Prescribing psychostimulants' fact sheet has been revised since 28 June 2026. health.qld.gov.au blocks automated retrieval (HTTP 403), so we verified it against Internet Archive captures of 5 February, 11 March and 28 June 2026, which are byte-identical. It is still the version linked from the Queensland Health 'Prescribing approvals' page as at that page's 7 August 2026 update, so it appears current, but we could not re-verify the live file on 21 August 2026.
  • Whether the Queensland Health departmental standard on monitored medicines is still version 2 (1 July 2024). We confirmed that version and date from a tabled-paper copy, but nothing we could retrieve establishes it is still the operative version in August 2026, and the December 2025 fact sheet refers to the standard without a version number.
  • A minor inconsistency between two current Queensland Health documents about the supporting specialist for a prescribing approval. The December 2025 fact sheet says that for an ADULT with ADHD the supporting specialist must be a psychiatrist, 'not a specialist GP'. The current application form (version 5, December 2025) carries a general note that 'for applications to treat a patient with ADHD, a relevant specialist is a paediatrician or psychiatrist'. We have followed the fact sheet's adult-specific wording, but a prescriber should confirm with the Medicines Approvals and Regulation Unit.
  • The 'Interstate prescriptions for dispensing in Queensland' fact sheet used for the cross-border analysis is marked current only as at July 2023 and its pinpoint citations reflect a superseded numbering of s 86(1)(m). Its substantive prescriber-location principle is restated in the December 2025 fact sheet and confirmed by the Regulation, but a newer version of that specific document may exist and we did not find one.

What changed recently

  1. 2025-11-01

    National, not Queensland-specific, but decisive for anyone considering a telehealth-only service: MBS telehealth eligibility changed. Two pathways now exist for a GP telehealth rebate - the practitioner meets the 'eligible telehealth practitioner' test (a face-to-face Medicare-billed service by that practitioner, or arranged by that practice, in the previous 12 months), or the patient is registered in MyMedicare and the service is delivered by their registered practice. The terminology changed from 'established clinical relationship' to 'eligible telehealth practitioner'.

    Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — AskMBS advisory - MBS telehealth eligible telehealth practitioner requirement: clarification of exemptions

  2. 2025-11-15

    IN FORCE SINCE, ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY AT THE TIME. The Queensland Government announced that from 1 December 2025 specialist GPs would be able to initiate, modify and continue ADHD medication for adults. Cited here only to date the change; the operative rule is in the Regulation, and the announcement's promotional framing is not carried across.

    Queensland Government — Ministerial media statement on specialist GP ADHD prescribing

  3. 2025-11-28

    Queensland Health's 'Prescribing ADHD medicines' guidance page was updated to describe the expanded prescribing rights, and a revised 'Prescribing psychostimulants' fact sheet dated December 2025 was issued setting out the new authorisations and when a prescribing approval is still required.

    Queensland Health — Prescribing ADHD medicines

  4. 2025-12-01

    IN FORCE. The Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Amendment Regulation (No. 4) 2025 (SL 2025 No. 148) commenced. It inserted a new class into schedule 6, part 2 of the Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Regulation 2021 - 'general practitioner', meaning a medical practitioner who is a specialist registrant in general practice - authorising specialist GPs to deal with stimulant medicines for adults with ADHD within the maximum daily dose and without a prescribing approval. The same instrument extended paediatricians' authorisation to adults with ADHD under 25 years, replaced 'attention deficit disorder' with 'attention deficit hyperactivity disorder' and 'brain damage' with 'brain injury', standardised the term 'psychostimulant medicine', and amended s 87 to require the condition treated (or the words 'specified condition') on a prescription.

    Queensland Parliamentary Counsel — Explanatory notes, Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Amendment Regulation (No. 4) 2025 (SL 2025 No. 148)

  5. 2026-03-01

    Currency date of the consolidated Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Regulation 2021, confirming the amended stimulant authorisations are in force. This is also the in-force version for today's date, so no further amendment affecting ADHD or stimulant prescribing commenced between 1 March 2026 and 21 August 2026. We identified no made-but-uncommenced provision affecting ADHD, stimulant prescribing, prescribing approvals or monitored medicines.

    Queensland Parliamentary Counsel — Medicines and Poisons (Medicines) Regulation 2021 (Qld), consolidated reprint

  6. 2026-08-07

    Queensland Health's 'Prescribing approvals' page was last updated, still linking the December 2025 fact sheet and the current application form - indicating the framework described here was unchanged as at that date.

    Queensland Health — Prescribing approvals

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