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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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What Does IVA Score Determine About IQ While Being Diagnosed With Adult ADHD?

I m pretty sure I have adult ADHD, and most of the evaluative measures I ve been through point in that direction. In fact, I was diagnosed as ADHD (inattentive) last year, but I lost that provider and had to find a new one. Now my testing psychologist is relying on the results of the IVA+Plus continuous performance test to conclude that there is NOT good support for an ADHD diagnosis. I m 66 years old, a college graduate, with a Wechsler VCI score of 141 and a Processing Speed score of 102 (a disparity of about 2.6 SD, I think). My IVA scores were 93 (full-scale response control), 108 (full-scale attention scale), and 109 (combined attention). But I have several problems with these scores: 1) My IVA age group is 66-96, so I m being compared to people in their seventies, eighties & nineties -- and a fairly small sample of them at that; 2) I didn t think the test was all that boring -- for only about 15 minutes in a distraction-free environment. (Plus, my career occupation was technical editor and my current volunteer job is teaching English as a second language -- so I ve trained myself to handle certain kinds of boring tasks); 3) I ve read that patients with more education and higher IQ tend to do better on the ISA; and 4) I think I do slip into hyperfocus sometimes. I d very much like to get a second opinion on the wisdom of putting so much weight on one CPT. Thank you.
Thu, 22 Nov 2018
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Pediatrician 's  Response
Hello,

You seem to be very knowledgeable in the specifics of psychological tests. There is more than one test for ADHD. You may wish to take another one from a different psychologist.

In fact, it might be better to see a neuropsychologist. Some tests for ADHD have about 35 questions about inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity which someone who knows the patient well fills out.

This would provide more weight to the diagnosis.

Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.

Take care

Regards,
Dr Arnold Zedd, Pediatrician
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What Does IVA Score Determine About IQ While Being Diagnosed With Adult ADHD?

Hello, You seem to be very knowledgeable in the specifics of psychological tests. There is more than one test for ADHD. You may wish to take another one from a different psychologist. In fact, it might be better to see a neuropsychologist. Some tests for ADHD have about 35 questions about inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity which someone who knows the patient well fills out. This would provide more weight to the diagnosis. Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further. Take care Regards, Dr Arnold Zedd, Pediatrician