ADHD Diagnosis
The process of diagnosing ADHD in adults can be trickier than diagnosing ADHD in children. An accurate diagnosis begins with a clinical interview by an expert in ADHD.
You must bring any medical or academic records to your appointment. You may bring questionnaires and rating scales to provide information about your symptoms.
Signs and symptoms
A thorough ADHD diagnosis involves physical examination and a discussion with a medical professional. The evaluator may ask questions about a person's childhood and their family history and utilize checklists to record symptoms. The evaluator may also look over the records of work and school and may want to talk with teachers or other individuals who spend time with the person.
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 must have been suffering from multiple symptoms for at least six months and occur in a variety of settings like at school and at home. The examiner will also be looking for other conditions that can cause similar symptoms, like anxiety, depression or a thyroid problem.
In adults, the evaluator will assess how severe the symptoms are and how they affect the way that they work or interact with others. The evaluation will also inquire how the individual feels about his or her symptoms and how much they affect their daily life.
Many people who suffer from ADHD have trouble remembering whether their problems began in the beginning or later. A specialist will often interview someone who is familiar with the person, such as their spouse, sibling or parent for an adult, or a teacher or parent for a child. The evaluator might employ checklists for adults, and for children the list of behaviours to be on the lookout for.
Unlike in the past, 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 suffering from ADHD who were diagnosed as children from being wrongly diagnosed as having other disorders, like depression and anxiety.
Medical Histories
If you suspect that your child or yourself suffer from ADHD the first step is to seek out an expert who can perform an exhaustive assessment. Ask your personal physician or an area mental health professional for suggestions, or consult the phone book under "psychiatry" or "psychology." You can also join a support group for adults with ADHD since many of them will have worked with local experts who are able to offer referrals.
During the ADHD diagnostic evaluation, a medical professional will look over the patient's medical and family history. They will ask about the effects of the symptoms on the person's performance in various settings such as at work, home or in relationships. It is important to assess how severe the symptoms are in light of the APA's guidelines for diagnosing ADHD state that the symptoms must result in significant impairment for the diagnosis to be made.
The healthcare professional will usually interview the person, but they might also request to speak to the person's parents, siblings, and other family members who know him well. Some healthcare professionals require patients to complete questionnaires or scales. These include ADHD symptom checklists and behavior ratings. Teachers and other caregivers can be valuable sources of information, too.
It is crucial to determine how the individual's symptoms affect in various environments, as the APA's diagnostic guidelines state that symptoms have to occur frequently and affect performance. This is important, as other conditions, such as mood disorders or learning disabilities could be similar as ADHD (Austerman 2015). A medical examination can be done to determine if there are any other possible causes for the symptoms. These could include thyroid issues and hearing or vision issues, or prescription medications like stimulants and sedatives.
Family History
In certain instances the presence of ADHD within the family may be a major factor determining the diagnosis. It is a highly heritable condition, and a careful examination of the patient's and his or her relatives' histories can help establish whether there is a family pattern.
It is essential for health professionals to have a complete understanding of a patient's symptoms, regardless of whether they occur at work, school or in social situations. A doctor must also determine the degree of how a patient's symptoms hinder their everyday functioning. This is a more reliable test than simply looking at the number of symptoms or examining a patient's IQ.
For teens and children doctors may conduct an interview with the child or teen as well as their parents. In many cases, a pediatrician or psychiatrist is an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. For adults, a detailed interview is required by a mental health specialist who has extensive experience with ADHD and takes the time to examine the individual's symptoms.
A thorough evaluation includes a physical exam, which can help rule out certain conditions that may cause symptoms similar to ADHD. A complete medical history is also taken. This may include school and medical documents as in addition to a psychologist's or school counselor's psychological assessment. Old school records can be helpful to adults to determine whether symptoms began in childhood.
In the case of diagnosing adults, it's important to take into consideration how symptoms affect daily functioning. A thorough psychiatric exam could be required, involving questionnaires and rating scales for the patient and caregivers, a psychotherapy interview, and a referral for medical examination. Adults may also undergo a neuropsychological or psychometric test to determine the connection between their symptoms and learning disorders.
Interviews
A provider will ask you or your child questions about their concerns at school, home and in the community. The provider will also ask about your or your child's previous medical or personal history, including family and friends and will review any records that you might bring along including old school report cards. This information will enable the provider to decide if you or your child needs to take tests 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 a six-month time period and include both home and school. The ratings should be provided by those who know your child or yourself well, such as teachers, coaches and Scouts, religious leaders and parents.
To be diagnosed with ADHD adults and children must have symptomatic behavior that is debilitating and hinders everyday functioning in multiple situations, like at school, at work or playing. The symptoms should manifest in the early years of the early years of childhood, usually before the age of 12. They are not caused by any other mental health issue.
The sensitivity and specificity in ADHD evaluations can be improved by using neuropsychological and psychometric tests that assess IQ and cognitive performance. They should be utilized in conjunction with a clinician's assessment and rating scales as part of a comprehensive assessment strategy. These assessments could involve the use of a standardized questionnaire like the ADHD Diagnostic Interview for Adults (DIVA), or a computer-based adaptive testing method that can measure response speed, short-term memory and executive functions. In read on , digital technology such as virtual reality for continuous performance tests as well as sensors for head movement may aid in improving the ecological validity of these ADHD assessment tools by allowing the person being evaluated to be in their natural environment rather than sitting in a clinical office.
Tests
If your doctor or mental healthcare professional suspects ADHD they may refer you to an ADHD specialist. A thorough assessment will consist of an extensive interview, data from other sources such as your spouse or significant others, as well as the standardized scales of behavior ratings for ADHD. Based on the clinical findings the evaluator might conduct tests to test for other conditions that could affect your symptoms, like depression, learning disabilities, or a medical illness.
In order to conduct an accurate ADHD assessment, the evaluator must determine if the symptoms significantly impact your life and functioning. The impairment could occur in a variety of settings, such as at home, at work, in school, or with your social relationships. The evaluator will inquire how your condition affected you in each circumstance. This will enable the evaluator make an assessment and formulate treatment suggestions.
A comprehensive test will include the symptom ratings and standard performance tests for ADHD. These instruments for testing are based on research that compares the behavior of people with ADHD to those who do not. They enhance the effectiveness of a clinical interview by focusing on specific behaviors rather than a person's overall performance. These measures can also help assessors determine if an individual is being disingenuous or is trying to cheat on the test, a problem that has been identified for many years in the field of neuropsychological testing.
In addition to the standardized test and symptom rating scales as well as the symptom rating scales, an extensive ADHD evaluation should include brain scans or other imaging techniques for the brain. These tests are not utilized in clinical settings due to the fact that they cost a lot of money and expose patients to ionizing radioactivity.