ADHD is a medical disorder. Since it is a medical diagnosis, the diagnosis should be made by a DOCTOR (Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist). When necessary, the evaluations and help of psychologists and development specialists with whom he/she works may be requested.
What are the drawbacks of making a diagnosis by people other than Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists?
To undertake the diagnosis or treatment process of someone who has not received medical education, who does not have the skills and training to evaluate the child or young person as a whole, brings with it very serious risks. A neurological, hormonal or immunological picture can easily be confused with psychiatric conditions. For this reason, the diagnosis and treatment process of ADHD or any psychiatric disease must be managed by a doctor.
Is there an auxiliary diagnostic test used to diagnose Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder?
In the diagnosis of ADHD, the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently announced that Neurofeedback is a diagnostic aid (not its use in ADHD treatment). Apart from this method, methods that examine the brain structure such as EEG, brain MRI, Brain Tomography, SPECT etc. are not diagnostic. These methods are mostly used in research to understand ADHD.
Psychometric tests used in the assessment of various attention subtypes can provide us with additional information, but Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder cannot be determined by testing alone. In other words, it is not correct to say that ADHD is present or not, with attention tests conducted in schools or various centers. It can lead families to wrong conclusions. Psychometric tests may be ordered when an intelligence assessment is required or when learning disabilities are investigated, but they are not diagnostic for ADHD.
What is the basic method in the diagnosis of Attention Deficit?
The main method in the diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is clinical interview. In this meeting, it is tried to get information from as many sources as possible. In the light of this information, additional diseases that can be confused with ADHD are tried to be distinguished. In addition, in these interviews, it should be evaluated whether there are diseases that frequently accompany Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Tick, Anxiety, Behavior, Depression). The education, ability and, most importantly, the experience of the physician who will make this evaluation are critical.
From whom should information be obtained?
Diagnosis is tried to be reached with information to be obtained from the child, family and school, and tests to be requested when necessary.
During the interview with the child, symptoms that are present at school or at home may not be observed. A very active child at home may behave differently in the examination setting. It is not necessary to observe all the symptoms in the examination setting to diagnose ADHD. What is important is how much of the symptoms are observed in the school, friends and family environment during daily life. Sometimes, due to age, the child may have difficulty in describing the problems. During the interview with the child, it is tried to get information about the child’s mood, school and friend relations, and his life in the family.
Family interview is the most important interview in terms of diagnosis. If possible, it is important for the mother and father to be in a meeting together in order to obtain information from different perspectives. It is tried to understand the beginning of the problems, in which periods they increase and decrease. It is tried to take the history of the past illness and the development history of the child. The presence of meningitis, epilepsy, head trauma, developmental problems related to language and motor area is important.
It is important to get information from the teacher through a one-on-one interview when necessary. It is important for the diagnosis to learn the behavior of the child in the school environment, where attention is required to be used intensively and where there are many more rules than at home. Information about academic status and friendship relations should be learned in this interview.
Teacher, Family and Child forms provide access to extremely practical and important information in routinely detecting Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and accompanying diseases. Information about the presence and severity of the symptoms of the disease is tried to be obtained from the forms.
Psychometric tests (attention deficit tests, intelligence tests, etc.) can be used in cases where learning difficulties or intelligence level needs to be determined. No psychometric test alone is diagnostic.
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