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Sometimes you just can’t focus. You can never tell exactly how much time is being spent on something. What you thought were a few minutes passing by turned out to be a few hours. You may even have a reputation for being disorganized. Sound familiar? You may be one of over 15 million people with ADHD. Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder where individuals have persistent patterns of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity that interfere with daily life. ADHD is most commonly tested for and found in childhood; many adults discover they have it, as well. No matter how pervasive symptoms may be when trying to seek treatment for ADHD symptoms, it is not a simple illness to diagnose.
Navigating ADHD testing can be difficult for both adults trying to get tested and for parents looking to help their kids get tested. Typically, testing ADHD in children involves a healthcare provider asking individuals who interact with or care for the child about the child’s behavior in different settings, including: at home, school, or with peers. For adults, testing involves a diagnostic evaluation conducted by a qualified mental health care professional or physician who gathers information from multiple sources. Sources can include symptom checklists, standardized behavior rating scales, a detailed history of current and past functioning, along with information obtained from family members or significant others who know the person well. Sometimes, these methods can take a long time to get to a diagnosis and may not be the most effective at seeing how symptoms can affect someone’s day-to-day life. These methods often fail to showcase how effective medication has been. However, that can change as Iowans have more access to at home ADHD testing through our partnership with Qbtech.
QbCheck is an FDA-cleared test measuring all three core symptom domains; hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention. It is used when evaluating ADHD symptoms and measuring response to ADHD treatment. Both the in-clinic and remote versions involve a 15 or 20-minute computer-based task that measures your or your child’s ability to maintain attention and impulse control. Meanwhile, the webcam built into the laptop tracks movements, and therefore activity, during the test. The results are based on a comparison of your or your child’s performance with data from other people of the same sex and age.
This test, developed by Qbtech, is the first FDA-cleared objective test for ADHD evaluation and treatment monitoring. These objective tests streamline the ADHD assessment process and help clinicians, patients and their families to gain a better understanding of core ADHD symptoms. A diagnostic assessment for ADHD involves three main parts: gathering a clinical history through an interview with your provider, an objective measurement of symptoms remotely, and the completion of one or more rating scales.
These are objective tests that can be used in the assessment of ADHD and for the evaluation of different treatments in patients with ADHD. As a result, the tests provide data on all core signs of ADHD, that is, hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention. The tests can be used in children (6-12 years) and in adolescents/adults (12-60 years). The computerized tasks differ in cognitive demand between the child version (go-no go paradigm) and the adolescent/adult version (unconditional identical pair paradigm).
The test is not designed to be a stand-alone tool for the diagnosis of ADHD. Rather, it should be seen as a key component in the assessment together with other clinical data, such as structured clinical interviews and subjective information from validated rating scales. It is, however, important that QbTest can differentiate patients with ADHD from normative individuals. Adding this kind of testing for ADHD has a few benefits. It can mitigate gender bias, shorten the time to receive a diagnosis, and capture treatment responses that are not reflected by rating scales.
We’re one of a few providers who are offering this test remotely and on site through our behavioral health services. We hope to make getting tested for ADHD easier for families in rural communities across the state of Iowa. If you’re a provider looking to help someone or a family get tested, all we need from you is note. If you’re looking into testing for the first time or want to talk to someone about ADHD testing, you can schedule an appointment here. or give us a call at 641-458-3055.
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