ADHD assessment and treatment
ADHD
For children, young people and adults. Expert answers without the years-long wait, from a consultant psychiatrist with several years of experience — usually within a week of your questionnaires coming back.
Whether it is a child who cannot settle at school, a teenager whose grades have fallen away, or an adult who has spent years working twice as hard to stay level with everyone else — an ADHD assessment is often the point at which it finally makes sense.
ADHD is a recognised neurodevelopmental condition affecting attention regulation, impulse control and activity levels. It is present from childhood, though it is frequently identified much later. Many people — particularly girls and women, and anyone who built strong coping strategies early — reach their thirties, forties or sixties without anyone naming it.
It is not a character flaw, a discipline problem or a modern invention. It reflects genuine differences in how the brain manages attention, motivation and reward. Left unrecognised it takes a real toll on careers, relationships, finances and self-esteem. Recognised, it is one of the most treatable conditions in psychiatry.
At a glance
- Children, young people and adults
- Assessed by a CCT-holding consultant psychiatrist
- Aligned to NICE NG87 and DSM-5 criteria
- First appointment usually within one week*
- Same-day titration for eligible patients*
- Full written report included
- Shared-care request to your GP once stable
*Subject to clinical suitability and availability.
ADHD medication supply
National shortages have eased, but a pharmacy can still run out of a particular medicine from time to time. Here is what to do if yours cannot fill your prescription.
The standard we work to. This assessment follows NICE NG87, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management. Both are public, and worth reading before you choose any provider — including us.
Recognising it
What ADHD actually looks like
It rarely matches the stereotype of a boy who cannot sit still. It shows up differently at different ages, and in quieter presentations it is easily mistaken for a personality trait.
Attention and focus
- Losing the thread of tasks that are not immediately stimulating — while hyperfocusing for hours on those that are
- Chronic procrastination, and difficulty starting as much as finishing
- Reading the same paragraph four times and retaining none of it
Organisation and memory
- Missed deadlines, lost items, an inbox that has stopped being manageable
- Forgetting appointments, names, or why you walked into a room
- Time blindness — chronic lateness, and consistently underestimating how long anything takes
Restlessness and impulsivity
- An internal motor that will not idle, even when you are exhausted
- Interrupting, over-committing, impulse spending, snap decisions
- Difficulty sitting through meetings, meals or films without moving
Emotion and self-esteem
- Emotions that arrive at full volume and take a long time to come down
- Acute sensitivity to criticism or perceived rejection
- A lifelong sense of underachieving relative to your own ability
You do not need to recognise every item. If several feel familiar and have been present since childhood, an assessment is worth considering.
Across the ages
The same condition, different at each stage
ADHD does not change, but how it shows up does — and so does what an assessment needs to draw on.
Children
Often noticed first at school — difficulty settling, calling out, unfinished work, or a bright child who is quietly drifting. Assessment leans heavily on parent or carer report and information from school, because a child cannot give a developmental history of their own.
Teenagers
Hyperactivity frequently softens into restlessness while the organisational demands rise sharply. Grades can fall away just as independence increases. Risk-taking, sleep problems and conflict at home are common, and low mood is often treated first.
Adults
Usually quieter and more internal: procrastination, disorganisation, emotional intensity and a long-standing sense of underachieving. Many adults are identified only after their own child is assessed, or when a promotion or new baby overwhelms strategies that had worked for decades.
Should you consider an assessment?
Any of the following is a reasonable prompt to get assessed.
- Several of the experiences above are familiar, and have been present in some form since childhood
- The difficulties affect more than one setting — school and home, or work and relationships
- A child’s school has raised concerns about attention, disruption or underachievement
- You or your child have been treated for anxiety or low mood without it ever fully explaining things
- A close relative has been diagnosed with ADHD — it runs strongly in families
- You were the child who was “bright but doesn’t apply themselves”
- A life change — a new school, a new role, parenthood, university — has overwhelmed coping strategies that used to work
Unsure? The pre-assessment questionnaires are a useful first step, and our team is happy to talk it through before you commit to booking.
The assessment
What your assessment includes
A proper diagnostic assessment is more than a symptom checklist. Here is what ours involves.
Pre-assessment questionnaires
Validated screening measures sent as soon as you book. These are not the diagnosis — they focus the appointment so your time with the consultant is spent on the parts that need clinical judgement.
A full diagnostic interview
An unhurried conversation with your consultant covering current difficulties across every domain of life, using a structured framework aligned to NICE NG87 and DSM-5 criteria.
Developmental history
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition, so evidence of childhood onset is required. For children and young people that means parent or carer report and, where possible, information from school. For adults it means input from someone who knew you as a child — a parent or sibling — or old school reports.
Differential diagnosis
The most important part. Anxiety, depression, trauma, autism, sleep disorders and thyroid problems can all mimic ADHD, and several commonly co-occur with it. Untangling that is what a consultant is for.
A written report
A comprehensive report setting out the assessment, the diagnostic opinion and the reasoning behind it — the documentation your GP needs to consider shared care, and your employer or university needs for adjustments.
A treatment plan you agreed to
Medication options with their benefits and side effects laid out honestly, plus psychoeducation, coaching and practical strategies. Nothing is prescribed without a conversation.
After diagnosis
Treatment options
Diagnosis is the beginning of the useful part, not the end of it.
Medication
Medication is the single most effective treatment for most people with ADHD, with strong evidence behind both stimulant and non-stimulant options. Your consultant will explain the realistic benefits, the side effects and the monitoring involved, then help you decide. For children, medication is one option among several and is never the automatic first step.
Titration and monitoring
Titration is the process of finding the right medication and dose. Eligible patients can begin on the day of diagnosis; from there we review regularly, checking response, side effects, blood pressure and heart rate until things are stable. For children and young people we also monitor height and weight throughout.
Shared care with your GP
Once you are stable, we can request a shared-care agreement so ongoing prescriptions are managed by your NHS GP at standard prescription charges. Shared care is always at the practice’s discretion — we provide the report and correspondence that support it.
Psychoeducation and strategies
Understanding how your ADHD actually works is a treatment in its own right. We cover practical strategies for work, study, sleep and routine, and can signpost to ADHD coaching where it would help.
How it works
From booking to answers
- 1
Book
Choose a time online. No GP referral needed.
- 2
Questionnaires
Sent immediately. Returning them starts the clock.
- 3
Assessment
An unhurried online appointment with your consultant.
- 4
Report and plan
Diagnostic opinion, written report, and treatment if appropriate.
Questions
ADHD assessment FAQs
Including the ones other clinics tend to answer less directly.
It is thorough and unhurried, covering current difficulties, developmental history and physical and mental health.
Yes — we assess children, young people and adults. What differs is where the evidence comes from: for a child we rely on parent or carer report and, where possible, information from school, since a child cannot give their own developmental history. Consent and who attends the appointment also differ for under-18s, and our team will explain that when you book.
Your completed questionnaires, and where possible some input from someone who knew you as a child — a parent, older sibling, or old school reports. If none of that is available, say so; we assess plenty of people who cannot access childhood informants and will work with what exists.
Yes, in many cases. If you receive a diagnosis and your consultant judges medication clinically appropriate, titration can begin that day. Some people need further checks first — a cardiac history, for example — and your consultant will tell you if that applies to you.
Our assessments are carried out by CCT-holding consultant psychiatrists to national standards and come with a comprehensive report, which is what a practice needs in order to consider shared care. It is worth knowing that shared care is discretionary everywhere — no provider, NHS or private, can guarantee your GP will accept it. We support the conversation and provide the documentation.
Yes. ADHD and autism co-occur often, and our consultants are ADOS-2 and ADI-R trained. If autistic features emerge during your ADHD assessment we will discuss whether a further assessment would be useful rather than leaving it unsaid.
Then we will tell you honestly, explain what we think is going on instead, and recommend the right support for it. Many people who are not diagnosed with ADHD still leave with a clearer explanation than they arrived with — that is a good outcome, not a wasted appointment.
Right to Choose lets you pick an NHS-funded provider for a first appointment and is free at the point of use, though waits vary considerably between providers. Our service is privately funded and faster. Both routes should meet the same NICE standards — if cost is the deciding factor, Right to Choose is worth investigating first, and we would rather say so than not.
Next step
You don’t have to keep managing alone.
Speak to a consultant psychiatrist within about a week, and start getting real answers.