Thank you for your interest in our ADHD assessment services for adults. Please see below the relevant information regarding our Adult ADHD Assessment.
1. What is included in the ADHD assessment for adults?
Our ADHD assessment for adults includes a thorough evaluation of your symptoms, medical history, personal history, and family history. The assessment typically lasts 1.5 hours with a consultant psychiatrist. The goal of the initial assessment is to provide you with a diagnosis where appropriate. Following this, you will receive a clinic letter with this diagnosis and the psychiatrist's current assessment of your situation in writing. After receiving the letter, you should book a review appointment if you would like to discuss treatment options.
2. If I already have a diagnosis of ADHD do I need the full 1.5-hour assessment?
If you already have a diagnosis of ADHD and are looking to book in to see a psychiatrist to discuss treatment of your ADHD, then you can book in for a 1-hour assessment appointment, subject to an existing full assessment report by a consultant psychiatrist diagnosing ADHD being made available to the clinic to review prior to your appointment. In this instance, the focus of the assessment will include discussions about medication.
If the report is not deemed to be thorough enough or of the required standard, the hour will be used to bring the assessment up to the required standard and a subsequent half-hour follow-up appointment will need to be booked in to discuss and plan medication.
We will advise this once we have seen the existing assessment reports, which should be sent following booking within a mandatory form sent to you via email along with the other patient registration and triage forms. If, following triage, the appointment objective does not meet your expectations, you will be offered a full refund.
We would also like to remind patients that we do not guarantee medicinal treatment. This is subject to the assessment of the psychiatrist during the appointment.
3. What happens during the ADHD appointment?
The assessment is conducted through a 1.5 hour video call appointment. Prior to the appointment, we will request certain forms to be completed and submitted. These forms provide valuable information to assist the consultant in making an accurate diagnosis. Once the assessment is complete, you will receive a clinical letter outlining the assessment findings, which will typically be sent within a week, often faster than this, after the initial appointment dependent on report complexity.
Registration forms are triaged to ensure suitability for the service. Where we feel we are not the most appropriate service for you we will let you know and will provide signposting to a more suitable service.
Once the appointment has taken place, the consultant will, having discussed the outcome of the assessment in the appointment, write a report providing a diagnosis. On some occasions, the Consultant may only be able to provide a differential diagnosis, and may need to spend additional time with you to complete a comprehensive assessment, where there are several areas that require further exploration.
Occasionally further possible specific diagnosis might need to be considered, for example if Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is suspected. An ASD assessment will require a separate appointment, although this would be of a shorter duration and would cost less due to some of the same areas already having been explored in the ADHD assessment.
If you go ahead and book a review appointment to discuss treatment options, a treatment plan will cover recommendations around behavioural tools that may assist in an educational, home or work setting, advice regarding talking therapies that may be helpful such as family therapy, individual therapy, CBT or EMDR or any number of other therapies available. Referrals can be made within Psymplicity or we can liaise with a 3rd party of your choice in collaboration with you.
Medication options will be discussed during a review appointment and can often be initiated following the appointment. The fee for the first prescription processing is included in the cost of the review appointment. Many medications prescribed for ADHD will require a blood pressure and heart rate reading and weight reading to be supplied to the clinic prior to a prescription being issued. Where there is a personal or family history of early cardiovascular disease, or there are cardiovascular symptoms such as feints or palpitations or chest pain a referral to a cardiologist may be necessary prior to issuing a prescription.
Medication for ADHD will typically need close monitoring and adjustment over a few review appointments during the first few weeks/months of treatment until a stable dose is reached. There can often be an initial treatment trialled on one type of medication which may not work or have side effects, before a second or third similar but different medication is trialled successfully and continued. In adults there is very high response to rate to medication, with significant improvement in areas that off medication cause difficulties.
4. What is the fee for the ADHD assessment and clinic letter?
The fee for a typical ADHD assessment and clinic letter including a diagnosis where appropriate is provided on our latest pricing page. In most instances, the initial assessment provides sufficient time to arrive at a diagnosis, with a clinical report confirming the assessment outcome typically being sent within a week, often faster than this, after the initial appointment dependent on report complexity.
5. What happens if I have complex symptoms?
When a patient presents with more complex or a wider range of difficulties, the psychiatrist may need more time to fully assess and diagnose. In such cases, you may be asked to book a further appointment, to complete the assessment process prior to booking a review appointment to discuss treatment options. Follow up appointment pricing is also available on our website.
6. Can I get a prescription for medication?
If deemed appropriate, the psychiatrist may prescribe medication as part of your treatment plan. A prescription will be posted to the pharmacy of your choice. Please note that as the prescription is private, the pharmacy will charge for the medication. Prior to prescribing medication, we will require blood pressure and heart rate readings, as well as your weight.
In some instances, we will require the opinion of a cardiologist prior to prescribing certain types of medication for ADHD. We would require the opinion of a cardiologist prior to issuing medication if any of the following apply:
- history of congenital heart disease or previous cardiac surgery
- history of sudden death in a first-degree relative under 40 years suggesting a cardiac disease
- shortness of breath on exertion compared with peers
- fainting on exertion or in response to fright or noise
- palpitations that are rapid, regular and start and stop suddenly (fleeting occasional bumps are usually ectopic and do not need investigation)
- chest pain suggesting cardiac origin
- signs of heart failure
- a murmur heard on cardiac examination
- blood pressure that is classified as hypertensive for adults.
If a cardiology opinion is required, we can write to your GP and ask them to make a referral via the NHS. In instances where the GP is unable to make a cardiology referral or if it is your preference, your doctor at Psymplicity can refer you to a private cardiologist of your choice.
7. Can my GP prescribe the medication?
Most GPs are willing to take over prescribing after around 3 months when a patient is considered stable on the medication. You would need to return for follow ups lasting 15-25 minutes until the GP is willing to take over. You would normally need around 3-4 follow ups depending on your response to medication. Please find the most up to date fees for our follow up appointments on our
latest pricing page.
We recommend you contact your GP to ask them if they would be willing to enter into a Shared Care Agreement at the earliest opportunity.
Although you will receive a prescription as part of the fee (if applicable), again the pharmacy will charge for the actual medication.
Occasionally a GP may prescribe based on the diagnosis provided by the psychiatrist. This is something you would need to confirm with your GP.
8. Can I request repeat prescriptions and follow-up appointments?
Once you are stable on your medication but not quite at the shared care agreement stage, you can request repeat prescriptions via the website. Where prescriptions are issued within appointments, there is no prescription charge. However, when issued outside of appointments, which will typically occur on a monthly basis when a patient is on stable dose of medication being prescribed by the doctor at Psymplicity, prescriptions are subject to an administrative fee as per our website. See our latest pricing page.
As Psymplicity will be issuing a private prescription, the cost of the medication issued by and invoiced by the pharmacy will require payment by the patient to the pharmacy. If you choose to continue your treatment with us, you can request repeat prescriptions and have regular follow-up appointments with the psychiatrist. Indicative pricing for the costs of the medication itself can be found by looking at the BNF website, selecting a medication, going to the medicinal form section where the baseline price of each branded and generic medication is available. Pharmacies will typically charge more than this and charge for direct home delivery where this service is requested. Please see the BNF section on the NICE website for more details. 9. What if I have insurance coverage?
If you have insurance coverage, we recommend contacting your insurer before booking an appointment to confirm if the appointment will be covered. You will need to obtain an authorization code from your insurer. Psymplicity will invoice you for the appointment with payment required prior to your appointment taking place. We will provide all necessary documentation for you to submit a claim for reimbursement to your insurance company. Please note that we do not reclaim the clinic fee on your behalf.
We hope these FAQs have provided you with the information you were seeking. If you would like to go ahead and book the appointment, please click here to book.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further information. We look forward to assisting you on your ADHD assessment journey.