Checklists, Questionnaires, and Neuropsych Testing
Welcome to The Mental Breakdown and Psychreg Podcast! Today, Dr. Berney and Dr. Marshall discuss the components of an adequate ADHD evaluation.
Read the articles from the Attention Deficit Disorder Association here and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here.
Dr. Berney and Dr. Marshall are happy to announce the release of their new parenting e-book, Handbook for Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child Part 2: Attention. You can get your copy from Amazon here.
We hope that you will join us each morning so that we can help you make your day the best it can be! See you tomorrow.
Become a patron and support our work at http://www.Patreon.com/thementalbreakdown.
Visit Psychreg for blog posts covering a variety of topics within the fields of mental health and psychology.
The Parenting Your ADHD Child course is now on YouTube! Check it out at the Paedeia YouTube Channel.
The Handbook for Raising an Emotionally Health Child Part 1: Behavior Management is now available on kindle! Get your copy today!
The Elimination Diet Manual is now available on kindle and nook! Get your copy today!
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube Channels, Paedeia and The Mental Breakdown.
Please leave us a review on iTunes so that others might find our podcast and join in on the conversation!
The Mental Breakdown Podcast is now on Google Play Music!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Dr. Berney administrator
Dr. Berney is a Licensed Psychologist with over 10 years of clinical experience and specializes in pediatric psychology, neuropsychology, and forensic psychology. Dr. Berney provides a wide array of mental health services to his clients, including individual therapy, family therapy and parent training, psychological and neuropsychological assessment, forensic evaluations, and group therapy. In addition to his clinical services, Dr. Berney has conducts workshops and seminars to professional and community groups across the nation. He writes a weekly column in The Ledger entitled The Mental Breakdown and is co-author of several works, including the Handbook for Raising an Emotionally Healthy Child (available on Amazon Kindle), The Elimination Diet Manual (available on Amazon Kindle), and the Pediatric Behavior Rating Scale. Dr. Berney is also the co-host of two weekly podcasts, The Mental Breakdown and The Psychreg Podcast, both of which can be found on iTunes.
2 Comments so far
EmPosted on10:49 am - Jun 22, 2018
Why are you only talking about children with ADHD? What about adults who are only then in adulthood getting diagnosed with it? I myself was 21 when I was diagnosed and my friend was 40. It explains both our childhoods perfectly. If it is such a popular diagnosis why didn’t anyone catch it till adulthood for many of us?
Dr. BerneyPosted on4:04 am - Jun 23, 2018
Em,
Thanks for the message. We spoke some about diagnosing ADHD in adults, though you are right, we did not spend a lot of time talking about how such a diagnosis is made. As we mentioned – and as you suggest – for someone to truly meet criteria for ADHD, symptoms had to be present prior to the age of 12 (for DSM-5, under 7 years for DSM-IV). The assessment of ADHD is adults is very similar to that of children. However, in addition to current symptoms, we have to work to gather information about symptoms in childhood. That may mean asking questions to explore more about the elementary school years or even talking with the adult patient’s parents (again, with the goal of finding out more about the childhood years).
I will go back and listen to the podcast again, but I believe that we mentioned that there are a variety of reasons why someone may not be diagnosed with ADHD until adulthood. For example, ADHD-Inattentive Type has often gone unnoticed, at least in the past; and those with ADHD who have cognitive skills that help them compensate in early years (in other words, those who are bright and for whom school posed no significant challenge), may have had symptoms of ADHD that did not really manifest until later in life, when challenges began to exceed their compensatory skills.
Diagnosing ADHD in adults is certainly a challenge for clinicians, especially since it was not all that long ago that the field truly believed that ADHD all but disappeared during adolescence. It is certainly hard to believe that now, but it was the school of thought within the last few decades. Nonetheless, I am glad to hear that your (and your friend’s) diagnosis was made and acknowledged. I did not learn until adulthood that I had been diagnosed with ADHD as a child, though my parents opted not to pursue treatment. I did not realize my challenges until graduate school, when my compensatory skills were pushed to the limits and I could not figure out why things that I had done my entire educational career, were no longer working. Once I started studying ADHD, it all started to make sense for me.
Thanks again for sharing and asking. Please let me know of you have any other questions.
Dr. Berney
About the author