Assessment Strategies for Moody ADHD in Children, Adolescents, and Adults
Abstract:
Individuals with moodiness, mood problems, and ADHD symptoms regularly show up in mental health or medical care settings, and must be accurately diagnosed to receive appropriate treatment. An accurate assessment of such patients often requires a careful evaluation of current and past potential mood, ADHD, and other symptoms from the patient’s and others’ perspectives. Helpful information may include history from family, significant others, teachers, coworkers, and medical or mental health providers, as well as prior evaluations, transcripts and school reports, employment records, and even legal documents. Formal structured or semi-structured interviews are considered the “gold standard” for assessing such patients, but are usually limited to research settings. Clinicians can also provide proper diagnoses and treatment of such patient’s symptoms through careful clinical interviews and mental status exams, supplemented with well-validated general and more specific rating scales that screen for various mental health problems and impairment related to them. Systematic use of such rating scales also allows the clinician to monitor ongoing symptoms, identify adverse changes, and achieve better outcomes with treatment.
Read the full research article here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-64251-2_2
