Adult ADHD Test: What a Screener Can and Cannot Tell You

Part of our ADHD articles. For evaluation and medication management, see ADHD care at Ridge Way.

If you have searched for an adult ADHD test, you have probably found a short online questionnaire. That kind of tool is a screener. It can tell you whether your answers fit a pattern worth checking, and it cannot tell you whether you have ADHD. Here is how to read a result and what an evaluation adds.

Is There a Test for Adult ADHD?

A screener is a short questionnaire that sorts people quickly, so those who may have a condition get a fuller look. A diagnosis is a clinical judgment made after that fuller look.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) describes how adult ADHD is diagnosed. A clinician may use interviews, behavior rating scales or symptom checklists, review school reports or other childhood records, and ask to talk with people who know you well. A questionnaire is one input among several.

What the ASRS Screener Measures

The Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) was developed for the World Health Organization. The full version has 18 questions about how often ADHD symptoms show up. The screener uses the six that best matched clinical ratings.

In the original study, researchers compared ASRS answers with blind clinical ratings in 154 adults. The six-question screener had 68.7% sensitivity and 99.5% specificity. In plain terms, a positive screen was rarely wrong in that study, but the screener missed some adults who did have ADHD.

The licensing page for the ASRS v1.1 screener states that it is not a standalone diagnostic tool, and that diagnosis or prescription should never be based solely on its score. You can take the free ASRS screener on our site. Answers are scored in your browser and never stored.

What a Screener Can and Cannot Tell You

A screener does one thing well, noticing when your answers look like ADHD.

Do I Have ADHD or Something Else?

NIMH notes that ADHD often co-occurs with other mental disorders, and that sleep problems are especially common, affecting up to 70% of adults with ADHD. A screener cannot separate these. Low mood, constant worry or poor sleep can all produce answers that look like ADHD.

That is why an evaluation asks about mood and about current and past medical conditions. NIMH describes this as the step that rules out alternative diagnoses. Our article on what ADHD is covers the three ways it presents.

How Is Adult ADHD Diagnosed?

NIMH explains that adults must have shown symptoms starting before age 12. The symptoms need to make it hard to function in at least two areas of life, such as home and work, be more severe or frequent than usual, and last at least six months.

See ADHD in children vs adults for how symptoms change with age.

When to Book an Evaluation

Book one if a screener came back positive, or if it came back negative and the problems are still getting in the way at work or at home. Bring your result and real examples, such as missed deadlines.

Ridge Way provides psychiatric evaluation and medication management for adult ADHD across Georgia, by telehealth and at our Sugar Hill office. If ADHD is diagnosed, a prescriber can discuss stimulant medication, which is a controlled substance and is decided only after a full evaluation, and non-stimulant options. We do not provide therapy. If therapy is part of your plan, we can refer you to an outside provider.

Read about our ADHD evaluation, or request an appointment and we will usually call you back within one business day.