Mentalization Orientated Psychoeducation Group for Adult ADHD (MOPAD)

Adults with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)-a neurodevelopmental condition affecting focus, impulse control, and activity levels-often face poor quality of life, emotion management difficulties, and interpersonal challenges. While medication helps core symptoms, it is not always tolerated or fully effective for emotional dysregulation. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommends psychological therapies as secondary options, but lacks sufficient evidence to endorse a specific intervention. The MOPAD study tests whether an introductory Mentalization-Based Treatment (iMBT)-a psychological therapy helping people understand their own and others' mental states-can be delivered in a group format. MBT successfully improves mood and relationship issues in other conditions, offering potential non-drug benefits for adults with ADHD. This non-randomised interventional feasibility study will recruit 16 adults with diagnosed ADHD. Participants will undertake a 12-week intervention of weekly 100-105 minute group iMBT sessions. Before and after the treatment, participants will complete standardized questionnaires assessing ADHD symptoms, quality of life, emotion regulation, impulsivity, and mentalizing capacity (e.g., ASRS v1.1, CAARS-2, AAQoL, DERS-18, UPPS, MENT-S, RFQ-8), alongside post-study qualitative interviews to share their experiences. Eligible participants are adults with ADHD recruited from NHS clinical sites. Primary goals are evaluating recruitment (target: 11 participants), retention (target: 70%), safety, therapy fidelity, and patient acceptability. Secondary goals include evaluating clinician feedback and gathering resource data to calculate sample size requirements for a future full-scale trial.

Inclusion Criteria: * • A minimum age of 18 - 65 years at time of consent * Able to provide written consent with an Informed Consent Form signed by the participant * Have ADHD as principal diagnosis using following diagnostic instruments. DIVA or ACE under an NHS Neurodevelopmental Service completed within the last 24 months. * Proficient in spoken English. Exclusion Criteria: * • Comorbidities of antisocial PD, autistic spectrum disorder, schizophrenia spectrum disorder, substance abuse disorder as principal or burdensome diagnosis, at the discretion of the PI. * On a titrating dose of ADHD or other Psychotropic medication.