8.6 ADHD and Those Who Fake It: A Model for Reliable ADHD Assessments in Rural Practice
Tracks
Botanical 2 room
| Thursday, October 23, 2025 |
| 3:55 PM - 4:25 PM |
| Botanical 2 room |
Details
Format: Practical workshop (60-minute)
Speaker
Dr Grant Blake
Clinical Director
Intensive Trauma Treatment Centre
ADHD and Those Who Fake It: A Model for Reliable ADHD Assessments in Rural Practice
3:55 PM - 5:00 PMAbstract Overview
Symptom exaggeration is common, risky and difficult to detect in ADHD evaluations.
This session introduces a unique ADHD assessment model developed at Focused Potential, a national interdisciplinary telehealth clinic. The model incorporates symptom validity testing before the first appointment. This ensures individuals feigning ADHD receive immediate feedback and a genuine opportunity to re-engage. The model also includes objective attention testing, medical tests (e.g., ECG, UDS lab, bloodwork), and collateral information in the diagnostic process. This approach has proven efficient, cost-effective, and clinically robust in distinguishing genuine attention deficits from invalid presentations.
The prevalence of feigned ADHD will be reviewed, followed by consideration of why symptom validity is rarely assessed. Participants will learn to administer simple symptom validity techniques, followed by discussion of ethical conundrums of validity testing in general practice.
Participants will learn how to calculate positive predictive power, which is a simple measure of diagnostic accuracy superior to conventional ‘sensitivity’ estimates. This will be applied to commonly used ADHD questionnaires, like the ASRS. The intention is to highlight the significant concerns about overreliance on self-report data in risky ADHD evaluations.
This practical, hands-on workshop aims to upskill peers to safeguard patients and the profession from adverse outcomes.
This session introduces a unique ADHD assessment model developed at Focused Potential, a national interdisciplinary telehealth clinic. The model incorporates symptom validity testing before the first appointment. This ensures individuals feigning ADHD receive immediate feedback and a genuine opportunity to re-engage. The model also includes objective attention testing, medical tests (e.g., ECG, UDS lab, bloodwork), and collateral information in the diagnostic process. This approach has proven efficient, cost-effective, and clinically robust in distinguishing genuine attention deficits from invalid presentations.
The prevalence of feigned ADHD will be reviewed, followed by consideration of why symptom validity is rarely assessed. Participants will learn to administer simple symptom validity techniques, followed by discussion of ethical conundrums of validity testing in general practice.
Participants will learn how to calculate positive predictive power, which is a simple measure of diagnostic accuracy superior to conventional ‘sensitivity’ estimates. This will be applied to commonly used ADHD questionnaires, like the ASRS. The intention is to highlight the significant concerns about overreliance on self-report data in risky ADHD evaluations.
This practical, hands-on workshop aims to upskill peers to safeguard patients and the profession from adverse outcomes.
Biography
Dr Grant Blake is a Clinical Psychologist, the Clinical Director and co-founder of the Intensive Trauma Treatment Centre (ITTC), a co-founder of Focused Potential, and a forensic mental health researcher in university and public health settings. He regularly provides trauma focused therapy services to people with severe and complex PTSD, including individuals with histories of criminal offending. Dr Blake regularly provides independent expert witness reports for a variety of complex forensic mental health matters. This includes for criminal law, family law, and personal injury. He has a strong interest in symptom validity assessment and works closely with medical practitioners to ensure ADHD evaluations and interventions are accurate, reliable, and safe.
