ADHD assessment device may be coming soon

[STEM_Dad]

Interesting news: There is a company which has developed a device that they claim can test for ADHD. It doesn't use any questions or attention tasks... Apparently, it uses sensors to detect responses within the brain stem.

israel21c.org/tales-from-th...

(I was casting a wider net to search this site for ADHD info on other forums, and I came across a post that was a copy of the article I linked above.)

[Tythrop]

Wow

[Mamamichl]

my partner and I both took it. His came out adhd and I came out without it because I hyperfixated. I’ve always stressed over tests.

[emiL1234]

If people chip in, IM a volunteer to go get tested. It’s going to be my sixth time for adhd testing. I wonder what the outcome will be.

[CoopTheDog]

Interesting. I hope they don’t rely solely on the device and pair it with questions or another testing mechanism. Because we all present so differently I can’t imagine it would be completely reliable.

[Mamamichl in reply to CoopTheDog]

It didn’t work for my presentation. I hyperfixate on tests.

[STEM_Dad in reply to Mamamichl]

Yeah, I do, too. When I realize that I'm hyperfixating, then I force myself to relax, which also might skew the test. After all, it's a test of autonomous response.

[OldIndigoBlue]

Another question is would the test be valid if someone is on ADHD meds??? Interesting information, tho.....

[CoopTheDog in reply to OldIndigoBlue]

I wonder if it could be used to tell if meds are working? Although, asking the patient might be easier. 😆

[STEM_Dad in reply to CoopTheDog]

Yeah, we don't need doctors invalidating what we are experiencing with some test. There are already too many doctors who do that.

[ADJB]

The story carries the time-honoured implicit belief that computers are in some magical way incapable of error. Such a belief has been proved wrong time and again. It relies on the quality of the diagnosis methodology employed, the quality of the programming, the benchmarking criteria and the interpretation of results. All these variables are in play, and probably many others too. None of them is fixed for all time and all are vulnerable to manipulation. The best that might be said is that it nominally treats everyone the same. But whether it is truly capable of an infallible or even accurate diagnosis is going to be much harder to prove. Have any figures been released on the correspondence or otherwise between this test and conventional diagnoses? If it's as capable as the promoter claims, diagnosis waiting times would shrink, costs would fall and it would no longer be a $30B market.

One of my concerns would be the risk of it falling under the influence of the pharmaceutical industry who might see it as an opportunity to sell more of their products. Even if there was no interference any perception of bias would undermine patient confidence in the product with inevitable consequences.