Diagnosis and Treatment From an ADHD Mental Health Psychiatrist in Evansville, IN

ADHD Diagnosis and Treatment With an Experienced ADHD Mental Health Psychiatrist in Evansville, IN

At Cady Wellness Institute, our experienced clinicians understand the importance of mental health and the effects it has on your everyday life. Because we value the significance of mental health, this allows us to offer you guidance and insight on how to unlock your life's potential.

If you are looking for a diagnosis or have already been diagnosed with ADHD and you are looking for support and treatment options, Cady Wellness Institute is the place for you. Call us today to schedule an appointment.

ADHD Self-Scoring Assessment

First Domain – Attention

Frequently, it can be difficult and vexing to decide if you or your kids have ADD/ADHD, or are simply over-stressed, overwhelmed, and pressed for time. Here are the symptoms of ADHD that all mental health care professionals use to diagnose problems with inattentiveness, hyperactivity/impulsivity, or both in adults and kids.

Please count the number of symptoms in this list that are a problem for you or your child. It’s “a problem” if this occurs far more significantly and seriously for you than it does for your peers, or more significantly for your child than his or her little buddies.

If you have six symptoms, you are fully diagnosable with Attention Deficit Disorder of the INATTENTIVE type. If you have four or five symptoms, but they are causing you a great deal of distress, you have ADHD “not otherwise specified” – which may still need to be addressed.

• Failing to give close attention - Making careless mistakes in schoolwork, paperwork, expense reports, etc.
• Difficulty sustaining attention in tasks - Your mind or your child’s mind simply wanders
• Seems to not listen when others are speaking to him/her
• Difficulty following through on instructions; failing to finish things; “just can’t get it done”
• Dislikes, reluctant to, or actively avoid tasks that require sustained mental effort (bookwork, bank statements, homework, school reports, etc.)
• Difficulty organizing tasks, activities, trips, shopping lists, etc.
• Loses things that are required and necessary (assignments, notebooks, school supplies for kids; car or house keys, insurance papers, work papers, airline tickets, hotel reservations for adults)
• Easily distracted and lured off track by other things (noises, things in the environment or room around you, a low conversation of others, talking, any amount of noise that most people would think was no barrier at all to concentration)
• Often forgetful in daily activities - “Space cadet” tendencies, forget things you’re supposed to bring home from school (or the grocery store)

Second Domain – Being “Hyper” or “Impulsive”

If you have six symptoms, you are fully diagnosable with Attention Deficit Disorder of the HYPERACTIVE/IMPULSIVE type. If you have four or five symptoms, but they are causing you a great deal of distress, you have ADHD “not otherwise specified” which may still need to be addressed.

• Fidgets with hands, bounces legs, can’t sit still (or stay in an office cubicle) - Needs to move
• Can’t stay seated in the classroom (or desk) - Needs to be up and moving
• Excessive climbing and running about as a kid; fidgeting and other behavior (pen clicking, finger drumming, etc.); is distracting to others as an adult
• Can’t engage in leisure activities quietly
• Feels “on the go” all the time, like you are “driven by a motor”
• Spouse/significant other (or teachers)  complains that you won’t slow down
• Excessive talking - Won’t shut up
• Blurting out answers before questions are completed
• Difficulty waiting turn - May have “road rage” as an adult
• Interrupts, intrudes, “butts in” to other people’s conversations - May want to cut in line as an adult

Scoring Notes:

• If you have at least six symptoms in one domain but not in the other domain, you have attention deficit disorder of that type.
• If you have at least six symptoms in BOTH domains, you have “ADHD of the combined type”
• If you have 4 – 5 symptoms in one (or both) domains, but don’t “cross the diagnostic line” with a total of six yet the symptoms are disabling for you or your child, you should still have an evaluation. Treatment options may be very reasonable.

Treatment for ADD/ADHD is with medication, supplements, balancing neurotransmitters, identifying, eliminating, and avoiding things in your diet and environment that make the symptoms worse. Coaching and counseling both can pay large dividends.

ADHD Treatment

Evaluation for Attention Deficit Disorder, with or without hyperactivity, is carefully and methodically done at CWI. Research and growing awareness of the disorder indicates that some individuals are unusually successful – and occasionally classically hyperactive – while living with this disorder, and we do not want to alter the successful components of personality make-up.



To provide the best-individualized treatment, we take scrupulous histories, as well as do a scrupulous mental status exam, and review potential medical issues that might complicate treatment.

We also use the Quotient ® computerized diagnostic system, which measures attention and movement on an age-adjusted basis to the nearest percentile, allowing us to see if there is demonstrable hyperactivity or inattentiveness, or if the symptoms causing the request for consultation might be due to other issues.

When medication is indicated, we use the lowest amount possible and always attempt to use extended-release preparations so that there is no “school dosing” involved with kids. Our aim is perfect control, for an adequate period of time during the day, while not altering the child’s personality, turning him or her into a “drugged zombie” in appearance, or giving him or her any kind of side effects whatsoever.

The way we are able to do this is through careful and precise diagnosis and our pattern of micro-adjusting doses of psychiatric medications, plus liberal use of supplements and natural substances to augment their effectiveness.