ADHD: Life-Course Trajectory and Complications of Adult Diagnosis Flashcards
What is the leading pitfall in the ADHD diagnostic?
Requires emergence of symptoms before the age of 12.
What does it mean to be developmentally sensitive?
Studies that are validated both in childhood and into adulthood. ADHD based on studies of children and not validated in adults. ADHD is NOT developmentally sensitive.
What is the 1st reason making understanding adult ADHD difficult?
- ADHD symptoms change over the lifespan. ADHD-PI tends to persist and ADHD-HI tends to go down. But we do not have a good sense of what ADHD-HI would look like in adults– so is it actually remising or is there a problem with the diagnostic criteria.
What is the 2nd reason making understanding adult ADHD difficult?
Comorbidity. 75% of adults with ADHD have been diagnosed with at least one other disorder (most commonly anxiety, mood, or substance).
What is the 3rd reason making understanding adult ADHD difficult?
Nonspecific effects. Outcomes or changes that are not directly related to the specific, intended mechanism of an intervention or treatment, but rather due to other factors.
What is the 4th reason making understanding adult ADHD difficult?
Not enough research on sex/gender differences. Prevalence across males and females narrower in adulthood than childhood.
What is the concept of relative age and how does it play in ADHD diagnoses?
All disorders carry risk for misdiagnosis however in ADHD this may be amplified by normal changes in how attention changes over development. Ex. School cut off design.
What is neuropsychological testing for ADHD?
Should include multiple attentional and non-attentional tasks as well as extensive clinical interview.
What can neuropsychological testing differentiate in ADHD?
Testing cannot always differentiation between ADHD and other cognitive impairments but CAN differentiate ADHD from other psychiatric diagnoses which mimic symptoms of ADHD.
What is the stroop test?
A psychological test that measures cognitive interference, specifically the difficulty in naming the color of a word when the word itself is a different color.
