There is a test to determine whether you have ADHD

ADHD is stigmatised and misunderstood.

If you fidget, you don’t necessarily have ADHD. You might do, but fidgeting is not a failsafe indicator. If you find it hard to concentrate, you might have ADHD, or you might have fried your brain by spending hours a day on the internet for the last decade.

This misinformation can be a lazy joke (“I’m so ADHD”) or it can be damaging. For example, it typically takes four years to successfully diagnose someone who does have ADHD. Failure to identify it is pernicious: it can cause behavioural and academic problems in childhood and at university and reportedly causes personal and career difficulties in adulthood.

Innovation is addressing it: Swedish company Qbtech (‘Quantitative behaviour technology’) has been working on an online test that claims it can determine whether you have ADHD. The test has just been granted approval by the US Food and Drug Administration.

ADHD has three chief identifiers: hyperactivity, impulsivity and distractibility. The test measures these. It takes 15 – 20 minutes. Geometric shapes appear on a screen and individuals must respond quickly and accurately by clicking their mouse. The individual wears a reflector on their forehead and there is a camera trained on it in order to record movement. More head movements than ‘normal’ might signal that you’re hyperactive.

After the test, you get a detailed report that compares you to your peer group and concludes if you tend towards ADHD. It could be used in schools and clinics to diagnose people more quickly.  Some doctors think the test could enable earlier identification and prevent children from falling behind at school, though warn that online tests cannot replace clinical diagnosis.

Do you have ADHD? Was it a struggle to be diagnosed? Get in touch to tell your story at [email protected].