DIVA ADHD - Improving Adult ADHD Diagnosis
DIVA is an interview that is semistructured designed to improve ADHD assessment in adults. This study will evaluate the validity of the criteria used in DIVA 2.0 as well as its concurrent validity compared to 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 including relationships and career progression to the daily tasks that make up our lives. It is crucial that our ADHD assessment takes a holistic view, examining how symptoms impact all aspects of our lives. Dr Schilling will begin by evaluating your symptoms and medical history. She will then take the DIVA 5 assessment, a semi-structured interview designed to evaluate the primary symptoms of ADD/ADHD and how they have affected your life.
The DIVA is an interview tool for diagnosing ADHD. It was developed by psychiatrists and psychologists to determine adult ADHD symptoms. It has been proven to have a high sensitivity to sound and specificity. It is also highly efficient in identifying people suffering from the disorder. It can help raise awareness and diagnose adult ADHD in Korea since it is the only validated semistructured diagnostic test available in the country.
In order to conduct the DIVA A trained professional usually psychologist or psychiatrist will ask questions about the main symptoms of ADHD, including inattention, hyperactivity, and an impulsive nature. The doctor will also dig into the individual's history, looking at their childhood experiences and how those may have influenced their behavior. This is because the signs of ADHD aren't something that just happens to appear suddenly, they develop throughout one's childhood, teen years, and into adulthood.
The DIVA can effectively identify those with ADHD because it takes into consideration both the DSM-IV criteria for ADHD in childhood and adulthood and how the symptoms have impacted the individual's daily functioning in five different areas of life: education work, family/partner relationships, family, social activities/leisure time, and self-esteem and self-confidence. Other screening tools, such as the WURS brief that was compared to the CAADID showed poor sensitivity, and negative predictive value.
Diagnosis
To diagnose ADHD in adults, it is crucial to assess the symptoms and their causes. This can be done through a comprehensive interview about childhood symptoms as well as a neurocognitive assessment. It is essential to take into consideration the impact these symptoms can have on a person's job and daily life. This can be determined using a structured interview, the DIVA and, in some cases, getting information from relatives and friends.
The DIVA interview is a semistructured, structured interview that was originally designed for adults in the Netherlands. Related Web Page has been revised for use in other countries including Korea. This study looked at the criteria that is valid for the Korean version (DIVA-5), in a clinical sample consisting of adults with ADHD.
During the DIVA the clinician will ask about ADHD symptoms in the early years and in adulthood. They will also ask the age at which symptoms first started to manifest symptoms and the level of impairment caused by these symptoms. The doctor will also collect different sociodemographic information and ask about any psychiatric co-morbidity.
Patients were examined for psychiatric comorbidity using the MINI-S plus version 5.0.0, the Brief Alcohol Related Neuropsychological Impairment Screening Instrument (BEARNI), and the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB). A diagnosis of clinical ADHD was determined by two experienced psychiatrists who used the DIVA-5 structured diagnostic interview to evaluate symptoms in both childhood and adulthood, and to 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 to the WURS scale and has fair validity when compared to 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 diagnoses made by two psychiatrists. This was in line both with the sensitivity and specificity of earlier screening tools such ASRS and WURS.
Treatment
If you're not aware of ADHD it could significantly affect your life. It can impact your relationships, academic progress, and work. It can also affect how you organize your daily life. A diagnosis can help you determine your strengths and difficulties, and also provide solutions to improve your symptoms and coping mechanisms.
A trained clinician (typically psychiatrists or psychologist) will have a structured conversation with you, using the DIVA-5 tool to evaluate your current symptoms. This will involve asking standardised questions about your levels of hyperactivity, inattention and impulsivity. It will also look into your personal history, including childhood experiences, in order to get a full picture of your symptoms and their impact on your life.
This is essential for ensuring a thorough diagnosis of adult ADHD. This allows us to better understand your symptoms and inform your treatment.
The DIVA assessment is a highly effective way of diagnosing adult ADHD and has excellent sensitivity and specificity. It has also been demonstrated to be reliable in determining the validity of criterion when compared to self-report rating scales such as the Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS) and the ADHD-Rating Scale. It has good concordance validity with these scales and good validity with Sheehan's Dysfunction Inventory.
The DIVA evaluation, unlike traditional methods for assessing ADHD in adulthood, focuses on identifying the symptoms that manifest in childhood and into adulthood. This improves the accuracy of the diagnoses and allows a more accurate comparison of the sociodemographic characteristics of the two groups. The DIVA assessment also permits consideration of the impact of coexisting disorders on manifestation and severity of ADHD symptoms.
If your Psychologist is unable to prescribe medication, you might need to make an appointment with a psychiatrist or a Paediatrician to discuss further assessment and/or treatment. They can then refer you to a specialist Psychologist for further in-depth evaluation of your symptoms and to determine if there are any differential or co-occurring diagnoses. This includes assessing any comorbid conditions, such as depression or anxiety. This will enable your Psychologist the best treatment plan.
Getting Started
A diagnosis of ADHD can alter your life. It can provide answers to persistent problems and opens the door to effective treatment options. However, a reliable assessment requires the expertise of qualified healthcare experts. The DIVA ADHD assessment, a well-structured and comprehensive tool, helps improve adult ADHD diagnosis accuracy by analyzing symptoms at various stages of life. It also detects patterns of behavior that persist and assists in determining the difference between ADHD symptoms and other disorders like anxiety or depression.
In a DIVA ADHD evaluation, a doctor will conduct an organized interview to ask a series of questions about the symptoms like hyperactivity, inattention and the tendency to be impulsive. The clinician evaluates the severity, frequency, and duration of symptoms to determine the extent to which they affect the person in various settings. This information can be used to develop an accurate diagnosis.
The DIVA assessment has been confirmed in comparison to other diagnostic tools. It shows high sensitivity in comparison to CAA-DIDs, WURS-briefs and psychiatrist's tests. It also has excellent reliability when it comes to it comes to assessing ADHD symptoms in five areas of daily functioning: education and work as well as relationships with home and family; social contacts; and free time and leisure.
To be able to conduct a valid DIVA assessment, the individual being evaluated, their family and friends need to be present. This helps to establish trust and a therapeutic bond that will be crucial for the success of the assessment.
A skilled psychologist or psychiatrist who is certified in the use of the DIVA ADHD assessment will be able to provide a comprehensive report. This report will outline the results of the assessment and suggest a treatment plan that is based on evidence.
If you suspect that you or a loved one might be suffering from ADHD, please contact us for an appointment. Our doctor Kate Schilling has been trained in the use of DIVA ADHD assessments and can provide a thorough evaluation. She can refer you to an expert who will create an appropriate treatment strategy. Be aware that a combination of medication and psychotherapy is the most effective treatment.