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> It seems to be very poorly defined, and from what I understand being diagnosed is practically still self-diagnosis because the doctor will ask you questions a
by JamesBarney 6y ago
> It seems to be very poorly defined, and from what I understand being diagnosed is practically still self-diagnosis because the doctor will ask you questions about your behaviour and judge whether you have ADHD or not based on that.
This seems pretty par for the course. A doctor asking you questions and then deciding whether or not you meet some threshold based on the answers to those questions is a large part of medicine and a huge portion of psychiatry.
- jordan_curve 6y agoTo add onto this there’s also lengthy cognitive testing (usually about 6-8 hours of tests) that is much more precise. My understanding from talking to my psychiatrist is that there are certain traits, such as reaction speed, that are correlated extremely strongly with ADHD. Usually patients with ADHD will test averagely on most of the cognitive tests and then perform several standard deviations below average on exactly those tests.
- astrange 6y agoThey don't only ask you questions, but will also ask your friends or parents for a second opinion on what you're like or how you were as a child. This happens more often if you are a child, of course.