Question: Hi! I hope this question doesn't get asked too often, but something I'm curious about is how psychologists try to figure out how to distinguish whether someone has ADHD, something else with symptoms that emulate ADHD symptoms, or both? I know one of the factors is whether symptoms were present during childhood or not, but that can't be the only thing to consider. So do professionals try to look for any particular clues or do they just make an educated guess for the most part?
Answer: ADHD is one of the few if only disorder that is a chronic deficiency in EF, and self regulation that often (though not always) dates back to childhood.  Other disorders can produce temporary bouts of disinhibition such as bipolar disorder but that is not chronic unless ADHD is comorbid with it.  While nearly all psychiatric disorder adversely affect attention in some form, only ADHD is a disorder of attention to the future, the next, or the later and involves disrupted goal directed attention.  Other disorders are more likely to create an SCT pattern of inattention in which the mind decouples from the external environment and overly engages in attention to mental content, as in mind wandering, rumination, daydreaming, rexperiencing as in PTSD.  That is not what we see in ADHD.
content: Q: Hi! I hope this question doesn't get asked too often, but something I'm curious about is how psychologists try to figure out how to distinguish whether someone has ADHD, something else with symptoms that emulate ADHD symptoms, or both? I know one of the factors is whether symptoms were present during childhood or not, but that can't be the only thing to consider. So do professionals try to look for any particular clues or do they just make an educated guess for the most part?
   Ans: ADHD is one of the few if only disorder that is a chronic deficiency in EF, and self regulation that often (though not always) dates back to childhood.  Other disorders can produce temporary bouts of disinhibition such as bipolar disorder but that is not chronic unless ADHD is comorbid with it.  While nearly all psychiatric disorder adversely affect attention in some form, only ADHD is a disorder of attention to the future, the next, or the later and involves disrupted goal directed attention.  Other disorders are more likely to create an SCT pattern of inattention in which the mind decouples from the external environment and overly engages in attention to mental content, as in mind wandering, rumination, daydreaming, rexperiencing as in PTSD.  That is not what we see in ADHD.