The formal test was a short survey about our childs behavior in various situations. It was highly subjective with questions similar to "My child has difficulty sitting still" (Never, Sometimes, Often).
There was not example of what is considered sometimes or often and what is age appropriate for a 6 year old.
The survey was required to be answered by the parents and kindergarten teacher. That was all that was necessary to have the option of medication.
Even more surprising is that with only slight more effort we now have the option to put our child on an IEP (indivdualized education plan) where there will now be a full additional teacher in the classroom assisting her.
Overall it has been an eye opening experience. Compared to our first child, our 6 year old is more spirited, but is not violent or defiant. She is mostly concerned with her own interests and will admittedly have difficulty focusing for long periods of time. I would be very curious if her behavior is above the threshold for ADHD in other countries.
This was just our experience and it is very possible that our child was an obvious case so further analysis was not necessary. For now we have opted not to use medication. Interestingly our diagnosing pediatrician has two children with ADHD and said that they put both children on medication at 6 years old.
This is like every 6 year old lol. I bet you I would have been diagnosed with ADHD if I was tested, but in truth I was just an active kid who didn’t like sitting in a classroom chair all day.
My kid was continuously falling off his chair because he was creating a tension bridge between his chest on the edge of the table and his feet on the seat of his chair.
It was driving his kindergarten teacher crazy lol.
Related: it was a 15 minute doctor visit for us, but both me and my wife have ADHD so the doctor looked at the survey and said "boy howdy, I think you guys know what you are talking about"
I got a short quiz to see what symptoms I was complaining about and then I got asked about my drug usage and why I was seeing them.
I told them that I tried a friend's adderall once and I felt so much better immediately.
They told me drinking 2 pots of coffee a day, doing tasks out of order, "just in time laundry", and being "excitable" is actually ADHD and that I'd be better off if I took these pills every day and cut way back on the caffeine.
It took about 15 minutes.
What other questions would you have? Do you think you'd need to give me the long-form test? Lol.
I followed the advice btw. It's going well many years later and I hope RFK doesn't take the stimulants away.
Feels kind of reductive.
If I played too many video games so now I don't get to have my meds, I'm going to be pretty sad.
Adult diagnosis is weird. I’m assuming you were not a child drinking that much coffee. Adults have decades of coping mechanisms obscuring the signal, and yet just talking to an adult with ADHD for an hour will tell you whether the person has ADHD instead of being a stimulant junkie that read the DSM to present manufactured symptoms. It’s exhausting to talk to someone with ADHD for hours if you don’t have exactly the right disposition (like being a polymath or having it too).
They will still often want you to do a sleep study, because chronic lack of quality sleep or chronic stress looks a hell of a lot like ADHD. It’s also why you want the person with ADHD to write or at least copy edit your emergency procedures because they haven’t just adopted chaos, they were born in it, molded by it. They were adults before they ever saw order and to them it was just blinding. They will absolutely write a procedure that won’t skip steps or overly rely on the actors to be calm and present of mind to pull it off.
Yes, I got mine this way. Telehealth during Covid was notorious for this, but lot of NP/PA offices now do the same thing, just with a single in person visit.
It may be personal, and you don’t have to answer, but this is the general question I have to these 15-minute diagnosis.
Conspiracy theorist anti-vax types exhibit "Big Pharma" skepticism, so media and pundits take great care to remind people of this. They want them to believe that they're picking a side in tribal politics.
edit: Another way it becomes left-coded is exhibited in this thread: victimization and grievance politics.
No idea what all it entailed other than the fact that they're unable to screen people out when I assume there are probably quite a lot of people doing or trying to do what he did.
So the process can't be especially rigorous.
We just started the evaluation with our second child and it's the exact same process. Not that I doubt some doctors cut corners, but I haven't personally seen it.
> A typical ADHD diagnosis in America is done by a paediatrician or a family doctor in an office visit as brief as 15 minutes. The norm in Europe is an hours-long assessment by a psychiatrist.
Anecdotal evidence, but our experience is — and most people/teachers/doctors we talk to say — that most diagnosis are done via similar long tests.
I’ve not heard of doctors/teachers trying to address ADHD without a formal test being done.
Are others able to confirm that they know of diagnosis from a “15 minute doctor visit”?
EDIT: In fact, our insurance won’t even cover medication for our son without a formal checkup — every 3 months.
Sure, some may “unofficially” think or claim to have ADHD from talking to their doctor that may say something like “it’s possible you/your child has ADHD”, but I find it hard to believe that actual treatment/IEP (individual education plan) happens without a formal diagnosis.