What a careful adult ADHD assessment looks like
If you’ve made it to this page, you’ve probably already done a lot of reading. Maybe you’ve taken a few online quizzes. Maybe a friend told you it sounded like ADHD. Maybe you’ve tried therapy and it didn’t quite touch the thing. What you’re looking for now is a clinician who will actually do the diagnostic work — carefully, in one place — and tell you what they find.
That’s what this assessment is for.
Why adult ADHD is harder to assess than most clinics will tell you
Adult ADHD is a difficult clinical question. Childhood data is often thin — parents may not remember, may not be available, may not have noticed. The differential is dense — trauma, mood, anxiety, autism overlap, alexithymia (difficulty identifying and naming feelings), sleep disruption, and burnout can all look like ADHD or sit alongside it. Much of what gets diagnosed quickly in a brief screening misses the actual clinical picture.
The assessment I run is structured around how this work is done at major US training clinics, and draws on current published and developing best-practice frameworks for adult ADHD diagnostic work — including the UK Adult ADHD Network’s Quality Assurance Standard for Adult ADHD Assessment Services (UKAAN AQAS, 2024)1 and the U.S. clinical practice guidelines from the American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders (APSARD).2 It uses structured diagnostic interviews, validated rating scales for current and retrospective symptoms, formal functional impairment measurement, cognitive profile characterisation, and broad differential screening — all in one piece of work, by a doctoral-level clinical psychologist.
What’s involved
The adult ADHD assessment includes:
- A clinical interview covering developmental history, current functioning, and presenting concerns
- Structured diagnostic interview (DIVA-5) — the structured interview most widely used internationally for adult ADHD
- Current symptom rating and childhood retrospective measures
- Functional impairment measurement across work, relationships, daily living, and self-concept
- Cognitive profile characterisation (WAIS-V) — to differentiate ADHD from intellectual or learning differences and to inform treatment recommendations
- Performance-based attention measurement (CPT-3)
- Psychiatric differential screening (MINI), with targeted screens for trauma, autism overlap, mood, and anxiety
- Integration of all findings into a written clinical formulation
- A feedback session that translates findings into something usable — what this means for you, what to do about it, and what to look out for
Achievement testing (WIAT-IV) is added as a follow-up appointment when it’s clinically indicated. I’ll explain when, below.
When parents aren’t part of the picture
A standard adult ADHD assessment asks for childhood collateral — usually a parent who can describe what you were like as a kid. This isn’t always possible. If your parents have died, are estranged, have unreliable memory of childhood, or simply aren’t part of your life right now, the assessment can still be done well. I’ve written a separate page on this: adult ADHD assessment when parents aren’t part of the picture.
Why this isn’t a quick checklist
Adult ADHD diagnosis isn’t a matter of running through DSM-5 criteria. The same symptom profile — difficulty sustaining attention, restlessness, executive function challenges — can be produced by trauma-adaptive responses, mood disorders, anxiety, sleep disruption, autism spectrum presentations with high masking, or genuine ADHD. Often more than one of these is present at once.
Two diagnostic traps are common, and both lead to inadequate care:
- Over-diagnosis — when the clinician sees ADHD-like symptoms and stops looking. The trauma history isn’t elicited. The autism overlap isn’t considered. The mood and anxiety differential isn’t worked through. The assessment becomes confirmatory rather than diagnostic.
- Under-diagnosis — when the clinician concludes that thin childhood data means ADHD must not be present, missing the high-masking adult presentations where symptoms compensated through cognitive ability or environmental scaffolding until adult demands exceeded capacity.
A thorough assessment has to navigate both. That’s why the differential work — the careful screening for trauma, autism overlap, mood, and anxiety; the developmental retrospective work — is at least as important as the ADHD-specific instruments. It’s also why this takes a full clinical day.
Fees and what’s included
Adult ADHD assessment — SGD 3,500
The full diagnostic battery, a written clinical formulation and report, and a feedback session.
Achievement testing follow-up (WIAT-IV) — +SGD 600–700, when clinically indicated
In some cases, the picture from the assessment suggests that achievement testing would meaningfully add to the formulation — for example, when a specific learning difficulty is on the differential alongside ADHD, when a twice-exceptional presentation is in play, or when documentation is needed for educational accommodations. When this is the case, I’ll recommend a follow-up appointment for WIAT-IV testing. The fee depends on the subtests indicated.
The full assessment fee is due before the first appointment.
When this is the right starting point — and when it isn’t
This is a thorough private assessment, and it isn’t the right starting point for everyone. If what you need is a faster screening for triage, there are clinics in Singapore that offer that pathway. If your primary concern is medication access and you don’t need the broader diagnostic picture, a psychiatry-led pathway may suit you better. If there is significant active risk — suicidality, severe eating disorder, acute psychosis — that needs to be addressed before assessment work can be useful, and I’ll help you find the right next step if you’ve landed here by mistake.
If you’re not sure whether this is the right starting point, the 15-minute Meet & Greet via
If treatment is the next step rather than assessment, I provide ADHD therapy and ongoing support for adults — practical executive-function work, CBT-A, and coordination with a psychiatrist if medication is part of the plan.
/book/ is free, and that’s what it’s for.1 Young, S., Asherson, P., et al. (2024). The adult ADHD assessment quality assurance standard. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 15. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1380410 (open access).
2 American Professional Society of ADHD and Related Disorders. U.S. Guidelines for the Diagnosis and Treatment of ADHD in Adults. apsard.org/us-guidelines-for-adults-with-adhd (the first U.S. clinical practice guidelines for adult ADHD; in development with full release anticipated).