ADHD Diagnosis
Adults can be more difficult to diagnose than children. A clinical interview with an ADHD expert is the first step towards a good diagnosis.
Bring any medical or academic records with you to your appointment. You can bring questionnaires and rating scales to provide details on your symptoms.
Signs and symptoms
A doctor will conduct a physical exam and interview you to determine if ADHD is present. The evaluator might inquire about a person's family history and childhood and utilize checklists to note symptoms. The evaluator may also review the person's academic and work records, and may also want to talk with teachers or other people who spend time with them.
The evaluator will use the official lists of symptoms for inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity to determine whether the person meets diagnostic criteria. The criteria are that the person has been suffering from multiple symptoms for at least six months and that they occur in a variety of settings like at school or at home. The evaluator will also look for other conditions that may cause similar symptoms, like anxiety, depression or a thyroid problem.
Adults will be evaluated to determine the severity of their symptoms and their impact on social or work life. The evaluation will also inquire what the person's feelings are about the symptoms and how they interfere with daily functioning.
Many people who have ADHD struggle to remember if their problems started in the beginning or later. For that reason, a specialist will usually interview someone who knows the person well for example, a spouse or sibling for an adult or an educator or parent for the child. The evaluator might use checklists for adults, and for children the list of behaviours to be on the lookout for.
Unlike in the past, the current diagnostic guidelines indicate that an adult shouldn't be diagnosed with ADHD when symptoms were evident before age 12. This change is designed to stop people who experienced ADHD as children from being misdiagnosed as having other disorders, such as anxiety or depression.
Medical History
If you suspect that your or your child has ADHD The first step is to locate an expert who can perform an extensive evaluation. Consult your doctor or mental health expert in your area for recommendations, or search the phone book for "psychiatry" and "psychology." You can also contact a support group for adults with ADHD, as many of them will have worked with local experts who are able to provide recommendations.
A healthcare professional will go over a person's medical history and family history during the ADHD diagnostic evaluation. They will ask about the impact of the symptoms on the person's performance in various settings, like at work, at home or in relationships. It is important to determine the severity of the symptoms since the APA's guidelines for ADHD stipulate that the symptoms require significant impairment in order to be considered a diagnosis.
The healthcare professional will speak with the patient, but they may also seek details from the patient's parents or siblings as well as friends who know him. Some professionals ask people to complete questionnaires or scales. These may include ADHD symptom checklists and rating of behavior. Teachers and other caregivers are valuable sources of information as well.
The APA's Diagnostic Guidelines stipulate that symptoms must be frequent and interfere with performance. This is important because other conditions like mood disorders and learning disabilities may be similar to ADHD (Austerman 2015). A medical exam can also be conducted to determine if there are any other possible reasons for the symptoms. These could include thyroid issues and hearing or vision issues, or medication such as stimulants and sedatives.
Family History
In some instances there are instances where the family history of ADHD is a major element in determining if you have a diagnosis. It is a highly heritable condition, and a thorough examination of the patient's and his or her relatives history can help determine whether there is a family pattern.
It is crucial for healthcare professionals to get a complete picture of the patient's symptoms including whether they occur at school, work or in social settings. A doctor should also be able to determine the degree to which symptoms affect a person's daily functioning. This is more important than merely counting symptoms or assessing the IQ of a patient.
A doctor may conduct an interview with a child or teen, as well as their parents. In many cases, a pediatrician or psychiatrist specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. A mental health specialist with a vast knowledge of ADHD is required to conduct an in-depth interview for adults.
A thorough evaluation typically includes a physical examination, which can rule out certain medical conditions that could cause similar symptoms as ADHD. A complete medical history is also gathered. For children, this can include medical and school records, as well as a psychological evaluation by school counselors or psychologists. For adults documents from school are often helpful in determining if symptoms started in childhood.
When diagnosing adults, it is important to consider how symptoms affect your daily life. A thorough psychiatric exam may be required, which may include ratings scales and questions from caregivers and patients in addition to an interview with a clinician and referral to a medical exam. Additionally, psychometric or neuropsychological assessment is often used for adults to determine if the symptoms are related to learning disorders and other cognitive impairments.
Interviews
A healthcare professional will ask you or your child questions regarding their concerns at home, at school and in the community. The provider will ask about your child's medical and family history, and will also review any documents you might bring, such as old school report cards. This information will enable the doctor to determine if you or your child should to take an assessment for ADHD.
Your provider will use rating scales to identify if you or your child meets criteria for ADHD, including six established symptoms in the two main categories of the disorder -- inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity. These ratings are usually taken over the course of six months and include both at home and in school. The evaluations must be conducted by those who are familiar with your or your child's behaviors, such as teachers and religious leaders, scout and scout leaders, coaches and parents.
To be diagnosed with ADHD, children and adults must exhibit behavior that is a source of distress and hinders daily functioning in multiple settings, such as at school, work or play. The symptoms must manifest in the early years of childhood, usually before age 12. They aren't caused by a mental health condition.
The sensitivity and specificity in ADHD assessments can be enhanced through the use of psychometric and neuropsychological tests that test IQ and cognitive function. They should be utilized in conjunction with a physician's assessment and rating scales as part of a comprehensive assessment plan. These assessments could include the administration of a standardized test, such as the ADHD Diagnostic Interview for Adults, or a computerized testing method that tests executive functions, short-term memory, and response speed. In the near future, technology that is digital like virtual reality and head sensors that monitor head movements for continuous performance tests could help improve the ecological validity by giving people the opportunity to immerse into their natural environment instead of sitting in a clinic.
Tests
If your physician or mental healthcare professional suspects ADHD the doctor might refer you to an ADHD specialist. A thorough evaluation will consist of an in-depth interview, information from other sources, such as your spouse or significant others and the standardized scales of behavior ratings for ADHD. The evaluator will recommend tests in accordance with the clinical impression and will screen for any conditions that may be affecting your symptoms. This includes depression or learning disabilities, or a medical condition.
In order to conduct an accurate ADHD evaluation, the evaluator must determine if the symptoms have a significant impact on your daily life and function. Related Home Page could occur in a variety of settings for example, at home at work, at school, or even in your social interactions. The evaluator should ask what your symptoms have affected your life in each of these settings. This will enable the evaluator to establish an assessment, and then formulate treatment suggestions.
A comprehensive assessment will comprise the symptom ratings and standard performance tests for ADHD. These tests are founded on research which compares the behavior of people suffering from ADHD and those who don't. They can improve the limitations of a clinical interview by focusing on specific behavior rather than a person's overall functioning. These measures can also aid in identifying when an individual is lying or is trying to cheat on the test which has been identified for many years in the field of neuropsychological testing.
A thorough ADHD evaluation includes an examination of the brain or other neuroimaging procedures in addition to the typical test and symptom rating scales. However, these tests are not routinely used in a clinical setting because they are expensive and expose the patient to radiation.