A set of guidelines for evaluating and monitoring patients with ADD was published in early 2007 by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The guidelines are based on a review by a committee of experts of more than 5,000 papers published since 1996.
The guidelines state that the diagnosis of ADD should be based on a clinical assessment of the patient. Expensive neurological or psychological tests add little or no information to what the clinician can learn from interviewing the patient, reviewing the patient's reported symptoms, and exploring the social, medical, and family history. In uncommon circumstances during the evaluation process, diagnostic questions may arise about a neurological or psychological condition that may require neuropsychological testing. Tests should also be performed if the patient appears to have low general cognitive ability or low achievement in language or mathematics despite having a normal intellectual ability.
In addition, the guidelines state that there is no scientific justification for electronic or radiological imaging of the brain (CT scans, Pet scans, EEG, etc) for the purpose of establishing a diagnosis of ADHD/ADD.
Students and others who request special accommodations for their ADD are often asked by school or employer disability specialists to take costly tests to certify their diagnosis of ADD. Such tests may give the diagnosis an appearance of science and certainty but in fact, they provide very little or no diagnostic information beyond that obtained by a good history and clinical examination.
The seven major recommendations of the Academy's report are as follows:
Details of the guidelines are presented on the web site of the Academy starting on page 6.