What Is A Connors ADHD Assessment, And How Effective Is It As A Diagnostic Tool?
If your child is suspected of having Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), then you may well have heard mention of a Connors ADHD assessment, and you may be wondering what it actually is? In a nutshell, it's simply a questionnaire that is designed to determine whether or not a child's behavioral traits are normal.
The questions are based on a set of guidelines provided by the American Psychiatrists Association (APA).
In professional circles, the current assessment is known as CRS-R (Connors ADHD Rating Scale - Revised), and it is the most widely used assessment.
The CRS-R is actually a three part assessment.
In other words, there are three different questionnaires.
One is designed specifically for parents to complete; the second one is designed for teachers, while the third one gets filled in and completed by the child being evaluated.
A psychiatrist or pediatrician will then study the results of all three questionnaires.
If the psychiatrist or pediatrician comes to the conclusion that the child probably does have ADHD, they will then interview the child, and of course they will ask the child several more questions.
On some occasions, the specialist will also want to interview the child's teacher.
As you can see, a child cannot be diagnosed with ADHD based only on the results of the Connors ADHD assessment.
Unfortunately however, there is a serious shortage of experienced psychiatrists and pediatricians.
I am not saying they lack experience in psychiatry, but instead, I am saying they lack experience as far as ADHD is concerned, and this is a well documented fact.
Proof of this can be seen in cases where teenagers bluff their way through the screening process.
These are teenagers who don't have ADHD, but they go online and familiarize themselves with the various symptoms so that they can be diagnosed with ADHD in order to obtain the drugs which are prescribed for the condition.
A psychiatrist that specializes in this field, and who has plenty of relevant experience, will almost always be able to tell if a teenager is faking the symptoms.
It is this type of doctor you want to see with your child if you suspect he or she may have the disorder.
Some parents have refused having their ADHD kids medicated with prescription drugs, and they have instead opted for natural remedies.
When they report a significant improvement, they have been told it is more than likely due to the fact that their children never had ADHD to begin with.
Essentially speaking, they are admitting that they cannot guarantee an accurate diagnosis.
If a child's ADHD symptoms improve overnight with a natural remedy, then I would agree that the child never had the disorder, but if the improvement comes gradually, then I would tend to believe that the child does have the disorder, and that the natural remedy is actually working.
The questions are based on a set of guidelines provided by the American Psychiatrists Association (APA).
In professional circles, the current assessment is known as CRS-R (Connors ADHD Rating Scale - Revised), and it is the most widely used assessment.
The CRS-R is actually a three part assessment.
In other words, there are three different questionnaires.
One is designed specifically for parents to complete; the second one is designed for teachers, while the third one gets filled in and completed by the child being evaluated.
A psychiatrist or pediatrician will then study the results of all three questionnaires.
If the psychiatrist or pediatrician comes to the conclusion that the child probably does have ADHD, they will then interview the child, and of course they will ask the child several more questions.
On some occasions, the specialist will also want to interview the child's teacher.
As you can see, a child cannot be diagnosed with ADHD based only on the results of the Connors ADHD assessment.
Unfortunately however, there is a serious shortage of experienced psychiatrists and pediatricians.
I am not saying they lack experience in psychiatry, but instead, I am saying they lack experience as far as ADHD is concerned, and this is a well documented fact.
Proof of this can be seen in cases where teenagers bluff their way through the screening process.
These are teenagers who don't have ADHD, but they go online and familiarize themselves with the various symptoms so that they can be diagnosed with ADHD in order to obtain the drugs which are prescribed for the condition.
A psychiatrist that specializes in this field, and who has plenty of relevant experience, will almost always be able to tell if a teenager is faking the symptoms.
It is this type of doctor you want to see with your child if you suspect he or she may have the disorder.
Some parents have refused having their ADHD kids medicated with prescription drugs, and they have instead opted for natural remedies.
When they report a significant improvement, they have been told it is more than likely due to the fact that their children never had ADHD to begin with.
Essentially speaking, they are admitting that they cannot guarantee an accurate diagnosis.
If a child's ADHD symptoms improve overnight with a natural remedy, then I would agree that the child never had the disorder, but if the improvement comes gradually, then I would tend to believe that the child does have the disorder, and that the natural remedy is actually working.
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