Adults Faking ADHD: You Must Be Kidding!

We are witnessing a dramatic increase in the number of adults presenting with symptoms of attention deficit hyperac-tivity disorder (ADHD) and wonder-ing if they actually have this disorder (Hagar & Goldstein, 2005; Roy–Byrne et al., 1997). The same increase is true at the college and university level (Learn-ing Opportunities Task Force, 2002). Many of these adults have no prior di-agnosis of ADHD, and may not be able to provide any information about childhood behavior to corroborate life-time impairment. In such situations, a clinician not only has to differentiate between the symptoms of ADHD and those of other disorders when making a differential diagnosis, but also must be aware of the possibility that the person may be exaggerating or feigning these symptoms for secondary gain. The idea that individuals could be exaggerating or feigning symptoms of ADHD has only recently become a topic of interest. As Quinn (2003) points out, “malinger-ing may be a potential factor for the dif-ficulty in accurate diagnosis of adult ADHD ” (p. 381). Currently, no tests ex-ist to help psychologists determine the level of motivation or effort being put forth by students being evaluated for ADHD, nor is there a way to determine whether they are exaggerating their de-gree of impairment. This is trouble-some, as recent research clearly suggests that about 50 % of the variance in a neuropsychological test battery is explained by effort and cooperation