How Can You Diagnose ADHD?

by John Cigar Article writer

ADHD therapies exist, but depend on correct diagnosis. Traditional diagnosis methods may not be accurate enough on their own.

ADHD is widely seen as becoming more and more common, but in large part that may be because doctors are becoming better at diagnosing it. For much of history the symptoms of ADHD, or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, were not understood to be part of a unified syndrome, and there was no such thing as ADHD therapy. Treatments for ADHD have been developed and are improving all the time, but the difficulty still lies in how hard it can be to diagnose ADHD. Whereas once ADHD was under-diagnosed and thus left untreated, some feat it is now diagnosed too often, sometimes perhaps wrongly, and patients are rushed to treatment.

While the aim of diagnosis is to help the patient, a misdiagnosis can be a problem. That's because the types of treatments used in ADHD therapy are fairly serious and should not be prescribed lightly. There are three main treatments for ADHD, two of which involve drugs:

1.    The use of prescription antidepressants to control symptoms. In particular, antidepressants can relieve the anxiety associated with ADHD and reduce fidgeting and socially problematic behaviors.
2.    Prescribing drugs that are actually stimulants. While this seems counter intuitive for treating a patient who is already hyperactive, stimulants seem to “reset” that hyperactivity level, helping control racing thoughts and restoring focus and attention.
3.    Psychotherapy. ADHD therapy is aimed mainly at helping patients identify their own thought patterns, triggers and behaviors so that they learn to catch themselves before they say or do things that will cause problems in their life.

While therapy sessions generally won't harm anyone, prescribing the wrong drugs has serious ramifications, and it's vital that doctors correctly diagnose the cause of behavioral or attention issues – whether it is ADHD or something else – before proceeding to treatment. Traditionally diagnosis was done largely by interviewing patients and monitoring their behavior, but this was riddled with errors. A much more accurate way is to look at brain activity itself.

There are certain areas of the brain that are typically overactive in ADHD sufferers and this can be spotted easily with SPECT, a type of non-intrusive brain scan that models a patient's brain activity. Likewise, periodic scans after treatment begins can see how (or if) brain activity is changing, giving objective data on whether treatment is working.

If you suffer from what you believe is ADHD, it pays to make sure. Ask your doctor whether a brain scan is right for you and see how it can be used to focus and improve your ADHD therapy.