DIVA ADHD - Improving Adult ADHD Diagnosis
DIVA is an interview that is semistructured designed to improve ADHD assessment for adults. This study aims at evaluating the validity of the criterion used to determine DIVA 2.0 as well as its validity in conjunction with Conners Adult ADHD Diagnosis Interview for DSM-IV criteria.
Compared to the top 20 attributes, DIVA attributes that correlate strongest with diagnosis are attention deficit for both childhood and adulthood and hyperactivity/impulsivity for adults, followed by CAARS ADHD TT1 score and IOWA personality disorders evaluation.
Signs and symptoms
Symptoms of ADD/ADHD affect every aspect of our lives, from relationships and career advancement to the daily activities that comprise our lives. This is why it's important that our ADHD assessments are holistic, looking at how symptoms impact all areas of our lives. In your assessment, Dr. Schilling will start by gathering details of your symptoms and health background. She will then conduct a DIVA 5 assessment. This is a semi-structured, interview which evaluates both the main symptoms and the impact of ADD/ADHD on your life.
The DIVA is an interview tool designed by psychiatrists and psychotherapists to assess symptoms of adult ADHD. It has been proven to have high sensitivity and specificity. It is extremely effective in identifying people suffering from the disorder. It can increase awareness and help diagnose adult ADHD in Korea as it is the only validated semistructured diagnostic interview available in the country.
To perform the DIVA A trained professional - often psychologists or psychiatrists will ask questions about the main symptoms of ADHD, including inattention, hyperactivity and the tendency to be impulsive. The clinician will also delve into the individual's history, looking at their childhood experiences and how they may influence their present behavior. This is because the signs of ADHD do not just appear in a flash, they manifest throughout one's childhood, teen years, and into adulthood.
The DIVA can effectively identify people suffering from ADHD by taking into consideration both the DSM-IV criteria for ADHD in adulthood and childhood, and how those symptoms have affected the person's daily functioning in five areas of life - education and work, family/partnership relations social activities/leisure time and self-esteem and self-confidence. Contrary to this, other screening tools such as the WURS-brief, which was compared to the CAADID and showed low accuracy and negative predictive values.
Diagnosis
To diagnose ADHD in adults it is important that you evaluate the signs and symptoms along with their background. This can be done through an extensive interview about childhood symptoms and an assessment of the neurological. It is crucial to think about the impact these symptoms have on the individual's work and life. This can be assessed by conducting a structured interview, called the DIVA, and in some instances, asking for information from friends and family members.
The DIVA interview is a semistructured interview first designed for adults in the Netherlands. how to get an adhd assessment has been re-edited to be used in other countries, including Korea. This study evaluated the validity of the criterion used to determine the Korean version of DIVA (DIVA-5) in an adult clinical sample with ADHD.
During the DIVA The clinician will inquire about the presence of ADHD symptoms during childhood and into adulthood, the age at which the symptoms onset, and the severity of impairment resulting from those symptoms. The clinician also collects wide range of sociodemographic data and asks about any psychosis-related comorbidity.
Patients were examined for psychiatric comorbidity using the MINI-S plus version 5.0.0 and the Brief Alcohol Related Neuropsychological Impairment Screening Instrument (BEARNI), and the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB). A diagnosis of clinical ADHD was determined by two psychiatrists with years of experience who used the structured diagnostic interview DIVA-5 to evaluate symptoms in both adulthood and childhood and determine the duration of those symptoms.
The sensitivity and specificity of DIVA-5 was found to be high for both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms in childhood and adulthood. This diagnostic tool has good concurrent validity when compared with the WURS scale and has fair validity when compared with three self-report ratings instruments: the ASRS (self-report rating), FAB (self-report rating) and Sheehan's Dysfunction Inventory.
The sensitivity and specificity of the DIVA-5 was found to be high for all subtypes of ADHD in both inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity in adulthood and during childhood. The accuracy of the DIVA-5's diagnosis was found to be comparable to the accuracy of clinical diagnosis that were made by two psychiatrists. This was in line with the sensitivity and specificity of earlier screening tools, such as ASRS and WURS.
Treatment
If you have an undiagnosed ADHD it can greatly affect your life. It can affect many aspects, from relationships to academic and work progress to the simple task of organising daily living. A diagnosis can help identify your strengths and weaknesses, as well as provide treatment options to alleviate your symptoms and cope mechanisms.
A licensed clinician, usually a psychiatrist or psychologist, will conduct a structured discussion with you regarding your current symptoms using the DIVA-5 assessment tool. This will consist of standardised questions about your levels of hyperactivity, inattention and an impulsiveness. It will also explore your personal history, including your childhood experiences, in order to get a full picture of your symptoms and their impacts on your life.
This method is essential to ensure a complete diagnosis of adult ADHD. This helps us better know your symptoms and help you with your treatment.
The DIVA assessment is a highly efficient method of diagnosing adults with ADHD with high sensitivity and specificity. It has also been shown to have good criterion valid when compared to self-report scales like the Wender Utah Rating Scales (WURS) or the ADHD-Rating Scale. It has good concordance validity with these scales, and has fair validity with Sheehan’s Dysfunction Inventory.
In contrast to the more conventional methods of assessing ADHD in adults, the DIVA assessment focuses on identifying and discussing symptoms that occur both during the teen years and into adulthood, increasing the accuracy of diagnosis and allowing for a more accurate comparison between the sociodemographic characteristics of both groups. The DIVA assessment also permits consideration of the impact of coexisting disorders on symptoms and severity of ADHD symptoms.
If your Psychologist cannot recommend medication, you may need to make an appointment with a psychiatrist or a paediatrician for a more thorough evaluation and/or treatment. They can then refer you to an expert Psychologist for more thorough evaluation of your symptoms, and to look for co-occurring diagnoses or differential diagnoses. This includes assessing comorbid conditions, such as depression or anxiety. This will allow your Psychologist to recommend an appropriate treatment plan.
Getting Started
A diagnosis of ADHD can alter your life. It offers solutions to long-standing problems and opens the way to effective treatment options. A thorough evaluation requires the expertise of trained healthcare professionals. The DIVA ADHD assessment is a standardized and extensive tool that assists to improve the accuracy of adult ADHD diagnosis by assessing symptoms across various life stages. It also detects patterns of behavior that persist of behavior and differentiates between ADHD symptoms and those of other disorders that can exhibit similar symptoms in adults, like anxiety or depression.
In a DIVA ADHD evaluation, a doctor will conduct a structured interview in order to ask a series questions about symptoms such as hyperactivity, inattention, and an impulsiveness. The clinician evaluates the frequency, severity and duration of these symptoms in order to understand how they impact an individual's life and functioning in several settings. This information is then used to create an accurate diagnosis.
The DIVA assessment has been validated against other diagnostic tools and exhibits high sensitivity when compared to the WURS-brief, CAA DID and a psychiatrist's assessment. It has also excellent validity for conducting an assessment of ADHD in five areas of daily functioning such as education and work, relationships with family and home, social contacts, and leisure time and hobbies.
A well-validated DIVA assessment requires the participation of the individual being evaluated as well as their close family members and their friends. This will help establish trust and strengthen the therapeutic bond, which is essential to the success of your assessment.
A psychologist or psychiatrist with expertise in the DIVA ADHD assessment can provide an in-depth professional report. The report will detail the findings of the test and recommend a treatment plan that is based on evidence.
If you think you or someone you love may be suffering from ADHD Contact us to make an appointment. Our doctor Kate Schilling is trained in the DIVA ADHD assessment and is able to provide an evaluation. She can then provide an appointment with a specialist to create an effective treatment strategy. Please be aware that the combination of psychotherapy and medication is the recommended treatment.