My experience with a neurologist specializing in ADHD treatment:
1. The doctor will interview you and ask you about your history, all the way back to childhood. If you haven't had problems focusing, concentrating, etc. throughout your whole life (even as a child), the doctor might be skeptical.
2. They'll test you to make sure you're not having seizures.
3. They'll also test your focus, concentration and short term memory with a computer test called CPT (continuous performance test).
Assuming you have a history of ADHD symptoms, you currently have symptoms that are interfering with your life, and you do poorly on the computer test, the doctor will probably start some kind of treatment, probably using prescription stimulants.
That said, I'm sure there are a lot of other medical conditions that cause symptoms similar to ADHD's. You might end up learning you have some other problem entirely.
The first doctor I tried wanted to have me see a shrink to get tested. The first visit cost me a $50 copay and then I had to have another visit to do the actual test, costing another $50 copay. I skipped that second visit and went to another doctor. (The shrink seemed like a quack anyhow).
My new doctor whipped out a giant book and started reading a battery of questions from the back of it. Based on the answers to those questions he determined I "met the requirements for treatment." Seemed a bit weak, but I didn't ask any questions since I knew I had already been through all the typical tests before. having been diagnosed as a child.
TLDR: YMMV. Just talk to the doc and see what he says.
1. The doctor will interview you and ask you about your history, all the way back to childhood. If you haven't had problems focusing, concentrating, etc. throughout your whole life (even as a child), the doctor might be skeptical.
2. They'll test you to make sure you're not having seizures.
3. They'll also test your focus, concentration and short term memory with a computer test called CPT (continuous performance test).
Assuming you have a history of ADHD symptoms, you currently have symptoms that are interfering with your life, and you do poorly on the computer test, the doctor will probably start some kind of treatment, probably using prescription stimulants.
That said, I'm sure there are a lot of other medical conditions that cause symptoms similar to ADHD's. You might end up learning you have some other problem entirely.