Our diagnostic package

ADHD syndrome starts in early childhood. Characteristic symptoms may already be detected as early as around the age of two, usually causing significant difficulties until the end of adolescence, and in some cases persisting into adulthood.

It should be noted that similar symptoms can also be caused by other problems (e.g. lack of school maturity, specific learning disorder, delayed intellectual development, depression, sensory problems or behavioural problems resulting from negative life events, as well as family or environmental influences), so it is very important

• to perform a clinical psychological interview and complete a questionnaire,
• to carry out the educational-psychological assessment of the child, and
• to provide a specific examination including observation by a child psychiatrist.

In addition, to make an accurate diagnosis, it should preferably be submitted in advance

• a pre-school or school pedagogical opinion written by a teacher who is in constant contact with the child.

The attached downloadable criteria system provides a guide for writing the pedagogical opinion.

Panoráma Polyclinic offers a complex diagnostic package, the detailed description of which contains a lot of essential information on the examination process.

A comprehensive examination can help to determine the course of treatment that can thus lead to a satisfactory outcome.

Behavioural characteristics

What are the behavioural characteristics associated with ADHD syndrome?

• The child is impulsive, restless, unable to control his/her behaviour, or not able to maintain or focus attention. These symptoms are present in different situations (school, nursery, family, etc.).
• The child can be restless, rambunctious, unruly, often accident-prone, messy, distracted, impatient, inattentive, staring, disturbing others with interruptive behaviour, boisterous, tired or seemingly inexhaustible in energy, not completing tasks, forgetful and underachieving.

As parents, we can suspect ADHD, if

• the child’s performance is extreme, uneven, has learning and behavioural difficulties, sometimes produces particularly good, other times very poor results
• the child is distracted, shows fluctuating emotions, behaves disorderly, acts recklessly and inordinately and may have temper outbursts
• at school, they may complain that the child’s grades are lower than his/her abilities, does not follow rules, disrupts class or simply his/her attention wanders, makes mistakes in what he/she knows, and is unable to complete tasks and to set priorities.

The characteristics are individual, but their difficulties and life histories show a characteristic pattern, which is the task of the specialist to identify and evaluate the information.

The ADHD team

It is extremely important that the child should be seen by a specialist, a child psychiatrist, to make a diagnosis and to complete the necessary assessment. The latter is also important because some developmental methods can be applied more successfully within certain age limits, and cooperative abilities may vary with age.

Child psychiatrists of Panoráma Polyclinic have gained vast experience in this field during their previous hospital work and their scientific work also covers attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and related areas. Our special needs education psychologist and our consulting psychologist colleagues have considerable professional experience in the assessment of cognitive abilities, diagnosis of partial ability disorders and learning disabilities. If necessary, a child and adolescent clinical psychologist can also be involved in the assessment.

Time factor is important

Time is an important factor in the diagnosis and in the impact on later life, since

• as time passes, problems may worsen,
• negative self-evaluation, lack of motivation, hopelessness, mood and anxiety disorders may develop secondarily,
• in addition, somatic (physical) symptoms such as headaches, abdominal pain, etc. may also appear,
• ulties in managing life may become characteristic in adulthood,
• other associated psychiatric conditions may draw attention to the problem.

Diagnosis and possible treatments

With a timely diagnosis and corresponding further treatments, such as

• behavioural therapy,
• medication,
• parental counselling,
• various developmental procedures
• psychotherapy
• etc.

the aim to reduce the disturbance of psychological development and to preserve the harmony of personality development can be achieved.