title: Diagnosing ADHD in Adults: An Examination of the Discriminative Validity of Neuropsychological Tests and Diagnostic Assessment Instruments.
abstract: The objective of this study is to investigate the discriminative validity of neuropsychological tests and diagnostic assessment instruments in diagnosing adult ADHD in a clinical psychiatric population.
  
  
  
  Of 108 patients, 60 were diagnosed with ADHD. The Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in adults (DIVA 2.0) and Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) v.1.1 together with eight neuropsychological tests were investigated.
  
  
  
  All instruments showed poor discriminative ability except for the DIVA, which showed a relatively good ability to discriminate between the groups (sensitivity = 90.0; specificity = 72.9). A logistic regression analysis model with the DIVA and measures of inattention, impulsivity, and activity from continuous performance tests (CPTs) showed a sensitivity of 90.0 and a specificity of 83.3.
  
  
  
  Neuropsychological tests have a poor ability to discriminate between patients diagnosed with ADHD and patients not diagnosed with ADHD, but variables from CPT tests can contribute to increasing the specificity by 10% if used in combination with the DIVA.
authors.affiliation: 1 Neuropsychological Clinic, County Hospital, Västerås, Sweden.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pettersson
authors.affiliation: 1 Neuropsychological Clinic, County Hospital, Västerås, Sweden.
authors.forename: Staffan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Söderström
authors.affiliation: 2 Centre for clinical research, Uppsala University, County council of Västmanland, County Hospital, Västerås, Sweden.
authors.forename: Kent W
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Nilsson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007175:Impulsive Behavior; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D012649:Self Concept; D057566:Self Report; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
keywords: adult ADHD; diagnostic validity; sensitivity; specificity