Executive
Function Questionnaire
Executive functions include planning, managing time, organizing, managing time, remembering, and reasonably controlling emotional states. A common cause of disorders of executive function is ADD, but there are other causes as well, such as depression, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, and anxiety. For this reason, simply adding up an individual's score on all the questions is not useful for making the diagnosis of ADD. The main value of the questionnaire is to identify issues that are important to consider when carrying out an evaluation and judging whether treatment is being effective.
If a majority of items in the questionnaire below are scored with 2's or 3's, it strongly suggests that the person has an executive function disorder and probably ADD. If the symptoms significantly impair a person's work, school, family, or personal activities, and there are no other medical or psychological explanations for them, clinicians will generally make the diagnosis of ADD. Clinical judgment and experience are required to interpret the answers and make the proper diagnosis.
It would be wonderful if there were a questionnaire that gave a clear cut answer whether a person had ADD. However, for a variety of reasons, there is none presently available. First of all, research has shown that all ADD questionnaire results are, at best, as reliable as the observations of the person who completed them. Different people observing the same person with ADD in different circumstances might score the questionnaire differently. A spouse of a person with ADD might give very different scores than would the person with ADD.
Also, the questions and the scoring system are not as scientific as one might wish. The best single indicator of ADD is distractibility. But for the questionnaire item, "I am easily distracted", exactly what does "easily" mean, and for that matter what does the respondent think "distracted" means?
With there currently being no physical or chemical test for ADD, there is no way to be certain the questionnaire "made the right diagnosis." However, their results will generally point you in the right direction.
So... questionnaire test results should be regarded as one of many pieces of information that a clinician would consider in deciding whether a person has ADD and/or an executive function disorder.
That being said, AdultADD.info offers a computerized questionnaire to clinicians to help them evaluate patients who may have ADD. For more information about the questionnaire, click here.
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Scoring
key |
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0 -
doesn't describe me at all |
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1 -
describes me somewhat |
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2 -
describes me pretty well |
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3 -
describes me very well |
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Score |
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INITIATION |
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I
have trouble getting started doing things |
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I
procrastinate |
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COMPLETION |
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I
have trouble completing things |
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EXECUTION |
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I
don't do tasks efficiently (good job in short time) |
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It
is hard for me to do two or three tasks in a row. |
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I
don't always do what needs to be done. |
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DISTRACTION |
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I am
easily distracted |
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| I get distracted by my own thoughts. | |
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PERSEVERANCE
AND FOCUS |
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I
don't stick to tasks that are optional |
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I
can't stick to a task even if I have to |
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I
often switch from doing one thing to another |
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INATTENTIVENESS |
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I
don't pay attention when I should |
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I
have trouble listening while others speak to me |
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I am
absent minded |
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MEMORY |
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I have trouble remembering things I want to do |
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I
get so deeply into one thing that I forget others |
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I
have trouble with my short term memory |
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I
lose or misplace things |
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TIME |
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I
confuse appointment times |
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I
forget appointments |
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I am
often late for appointments |
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FUTURE
AWARENESS AND PLANNING |
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I
have trouble making plans long in advance |
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I
let my gas tank needle get close to empty |
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I
rarely get to trains at least 10 minutes early |
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ORGANIZATION |
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I
get disorganized |
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My
personal work area is messy |
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I put on my seat belt after the car has started moving |
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I don't prioritize or plan my day |
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I can't work well without structure or direction |
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I
have difficulty taking command of my time. |
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I
waste a lot of time doing nothing. |
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PHYSICAL
ACTIVITY |
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I
need to keep walking, moving around |
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I
have trouble sitting still, I fidget |
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FRUSTRATION/IMPULSIVENESS |
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I
get angry easily |
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I am
easily frustrated |
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I
get impatient easily |
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I
interrupt when other people are talking |
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I am
impulsive, do things without thinking |
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ANXIETY |
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I
focus and concentrate better if I am somewhat anxious. |
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MULTI-TASKING
(parallel) |
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I
have trouble doing more than one thing at a time well |
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I
often try to do more than one task at a time |
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I
tend to make things more complicated than they need to be |
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MULTI-TASKING
(serial) |
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I
dislike tasks that require a long series of steps |
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SLEEP |
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I
have trouble getting to sleep because my mind is going |
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UNCATEGORIZED |
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I
get so deeply into one thing that I forget other things I have to do |
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I
believe that there is usually a quick solutions to problems |
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Copyright Marc Schwartz, MD, 2000-2007, New
Haven, CT. All rights reserved.
Version 2.34