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I am going to mention something. In my distant past I worked for a psychology firm handling, well, everything to do with computers. That included some testing
by at_a_remove 6y ago
I am going to mention something. In my distant past I worked for a psychology firm handling, well, everything to do with computers. That included some testing.
In the United States, there are two tests for ADHD I would vouch for: Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT) and the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA). Both are computerized. Both rely solely on your reactions and your restraint, they are not questionnaires. We had plenty of patients who had been diagnosed via questionnaire who did not show up at ADHD to a significant degree on those tests. Rather, they had some other underlying disorder that can also mess with attention, such as, sadly, early onset schizophrenia.
The other benefit of these computerized tests is that you can use the to titrate your medication to an appropriate dose, as most stimulants have an inverted U-shaped response. Too much and you get to feeling like a zombie. Gain weight? Retake the test. Maybe you hit puberty. Retake the test. Maybe you have side effects and you need a different formulation or a different medication all together. Retake the test. By doing this, you can figure out what your optimal dose is, even figure out at what time you "peak."
The other way to diagnose is through a PET scan but I don't know anyone in their right minds who does that.
CPTs and TOVAs, I don't know how much they cost today but I would say that they are worth it, both for peace of mind (I really have it, my parents didn't just answer the questionnaire hoping to get certain results) and for the ability to tune your medicinal needs.
- TYPE_FASTER 6y agoThanks for posting this. I've wondered about being able to assess the degree of ADHD quantitatively.
- brailsafe 6y agoCould you elaborate by adding any relevant but legitimate links? The web is filled with all kinds of crap, and I'm sure that would be useful.
- Y_Y 6y agoIs there an easy way to access these tests? Like a free clone or something? I'd much rather not fork over my precious currency to some rent-seeker just so they can let me do the test on their computer and the give it their stamp of approval. If there's nothing but a description then I'll go and implement it myself and release it on sourcehut.
- at_a_remove 6y agoGood luck with that. You have no idea of what you're up against. Let's just start with the basics: 1) Which types of attention will you measure and how do you differentiate between them? 2) Do you have an extensive body of testing to establish baselines, normals, standard deviations, and the like? 3) Do you expect a psychiatrist to write a prescription of a scheduled drug for anyone based on something they downloaded off of, say, sourceforge, or cloned out of GitHub? Even if you valued your time at a buck an hour, you're not gonna get cheaper than forking over your precious currency to some rent-seeker.
- Y_Y 6y agoDude, I mean to copy the existing test. Also it takes much less than to get a scrip, just those shitty questionnaires. And I would if it time well spent if it helped me and others to manage their illness.
- at_a_remove 6y agoWell, you can try to copy the existing test, but you won't know how to calibrate any of the scores. It's a reaction test, based on times. The most you can copy is "see a letter, press a spacebar" functionality. They're not going to give you the source and they're not going to give you the base data. You can test people for times but you don't know the cutoffs or the norms for those times. You don't even know if high or low of a norm is a sign of attention or inattention. You'd have an easier time replicating the MMPI. But go for it.
- Y_Y 6y agoNice try, big psychometrics.