Ever heard of "ADHD Online Diagnosis & Treatment"?

[Figitandhum]

I am an older guy getting frustrated looking for someone in my area to perform assessment for ADHD. So this just popped up. Does anyone have experience with the online site "ADHD Online Diagnosis & Treatment" ? Basically they claim to be clinical psychologists who do online interviews coupled with questionnaires to proved a yes or no. The fee is a max of $150, depending on insurance. If yes, they provide a regular clinical report in about 4 days to that effect that can be brought to a doctor to discuss medication or other treatment. The claim is that their reports are accepted 'nationwide'. Boy, that would be great but I'm a bit cautious. Surely someone on this site knows about them? I did not include the link to the site in case that is frowned on in this forum, but will be glad to do so.

[Jjflash]

Hiya figitandhum,never heard of this but the idea of being assessed online rather than face to face,throws up a few doubts.I know you've struggled to get assessed via your local medic but the idea of getting a prognosis online without them seeing how you react to their questions sounds questionable.Unless its done via a zoom type convo and youre 100% confident about their legitimacy,I would have doubts myself.It sounds like you have concerns also.I hope you go down the medic route and try to keep on top of them to get referred as quickly as possible to a specialist in the field.I hope you get what you want ASAP.

[Figitandhum in reply to Jjflash]

Thanks. Yes, they look too glib and smooth to me. Probably not a scam but I doubt if local doctors will accept a diagnosis from an online evaluation. I will continue my search for a local person to do my assessment.

[thestudent]

Since the pandemic stuff a lot of things have been done online, some ADHD assessments included, so it being online doesn’t mean it can’t be valid. I was diagnosed through an online consultation (through the national health service).

The main red flag is that I can’t see any detailed description of the assessment itself. It should contain a video interview element really but I can’t find anything that confirms this. An assessment based on only form-filling would be doubted.

You obviously live in a different country and so I’m not entirely sure how the whole insurance thing works, but I would check with your provider first and make sure that they cover it. And check with the primary care physician you’re planning to take the diagnosis to, they’ll probably know more on whether it is valid, and it does say “with very few exceptions”. If they’ll accept it and say they’ll be able to prescribe you with medication with it, which I assume is what you want from this (or maybe workplace accommodations? In which case check with an employer if they would accept it), then I see no reason to not go ahead. The risk is that if you switch to another physician or state that doesn’t accept it*

*again, I’m not in your country so I may not have any idea what I’m talking about

[Figitandhum in reply to thestudent]

Your reply is very thoughtful and you are right about online assessments being valid in many cases. This seems to be used more in England. I will do the logical thing and check with my doctor to see if he will accept an ADHD assessment from this organization. I noticed t hat they use psychologists from each of the 50 states which would make it more legitimate if the person who interviews/reviews the questionnaires has a license in my state. Also, the BBB (Better Business Bureau) does have some complaints against them. Not too worrying since people complain against every company but still a warning. Thanks again and I will continue to search locally while I check with my primary care doctor.