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Doctor, how can you tell if you have Attention Deficit?
Because the symptoms of ADHD are all about problems that everyone of us has sometimes
you really need a careful assessment to determine whether a person has ADHD or doesn't have it
or may have something else that is causing them trouble.
A good assessment requires not just one measure
you can't do any rating scales or any computerized test
or any psychological test that is going to say in itself, yes you have ADHD
there is no laboratory test, there is no brain scan
but it can be reliably assessed and diagnosed by a comprehensive clinical evaluation.
and what the means is, having a doctor, somebody who really understands this disorder and other disorders
that can sit down and talk with the person, whether it is a child or an adult
and get information from them and from the people that know them, their family members
if they are students, to get reports from their teachers and review their school reports
and to ask a whole range of questions to get some idea of what they are having trouble with, what they are doing well in
and what the history has been of these problems
so you can tell if this is something that is recent onset and may be a reaction to a life situation
or whether it is a problem they have had for a long time that just hasn't been discovered.
and then the clinician has to put all the pieces of information together
that are gathered from the patient, from the collaterals, from the parents, from the spouse or the friends
from the records of their work or schooling,
sometimes some psychological testing, sometimes reports of IQ test and achievement test
and put all of that together to address that question
Is this ADHD or isn't it, is there something else with it.
You always want to screen for other possible disorders as well
and determine whether it is ADHD, something else or both.