Dr. Arnold Shapiro is a board-certified psychiatrist in Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky who has evaluated ADHD in children and adults for 35+ years. His evaluation reads the whole picture — history, comorbidity, school and work context — rather than resting a diagnosis on a single rating scale.
Why the “test” framing is misleading
There is no single blood test or brain scan that diagnoses ADHD. The diagnosis is clinical: it rests on a careful history of how symptoms show up over time and across settings, guided by established criteria. Rating scales from parents, teachers, and patients are genuinely useful — and we use them — but they measure symptoms, not causes.
That distinction matters because so many things look like ADHD from the outside. Anxiety, depression, poor sleep, thyroid problems, and learning differences can all produce inattention and restlessness. Treat those as ADHD and the medication won't work; miss them and the real problem goes unaddressed. The whole point of a thorough evaluation is to tell them apart.
What a proper evaluation actually covers
A real history, not just a score
How attention, energy, and focus have played out over time and across settings — school, work, home, relationships — because ADHD is a pattern, not a single test result.
What else is going on
Anxiety, depression, sleep problems, thyroid issues, and learning differences can all imitate or accompany ADHD. Finding them is what keeps the treatment from missing.
The school and work picture
For children, teacher input and the classroom reality. For adults, how symptoms actually affect the workday. Real context, not a generic questionnaire.
A plan you help choose
Whether the answer is medication, coaching and skills, school accommodations, or a combination — explained plainly, with the pros and cons of each option on the table.
When formal neuropsychological testing is the right call
Sometimes a specific question — a suspected learning disability, unusual cognitive findings, or documentation a school or employer requires — does call for formal neuropsychological testing. When it does, Dr. Shapiro will say so plainly and help you arrange it. What he won't do is order an expensive testing battery no one needs, or let a stack of questionnaires stand in for a real conversation about your history.
Children and adults, both
- Children struggling in school, with teacher input built into the evaluation
- Teenagers, where ADHD, anxiety, and mood so often overlap
- Adults who were never diagnosed and are only now understanding why
Common questions
Is an ADHD evaluation the same as ADHD testing?
Not quite. A checklist or rating scale can raise the question of ADHD, but it cannot make the diagnosis on its own. A proper evaluation is a clinical process: a careful history, a look at how symptoms show up across settings, and a search for other conditions that imitate or accompany ADHD. Formal neuropsychological testing is sometimes a useful piece of that puzzle — but it is one tool, not the whole answer.
Do you evaluate adults, or only children?
Both. Dr. Shapiro has evaluated and treated ADHD across the lifespan for over 35 years — children who are struggling in school, teenagers, and adults who were never diagnosed and are only now realizing why work and daily life have always felt harder than they should.
My child's pediatrician gave us a rating scale. Isn't that enough?
Rating scales from parents and teachers are valuable and we use them. But they measure symptoms, not causes. Anxiety, learning differences, sleep problems, and mood conditions can all produce the same classroom picture as ADHD. The evaluation exists to tell those apart, so the treatment actually fits.
When is formal neuropsychological testing worth it?
When there's a specific question a clinical evaluation can't answer on its own — a suspected learning disability, unusual cognitive findings, or documentation a school requires. In those cases Dr. Shapiro will tell you plainly that testing is the right next step and help you arrange it, rather than ordering an expensive battery no one needs.