After years of wondering, I finally had myself tested for ADHD at the hospital last week.
After the test, the doctor asked where I was from. When I told him, he explained to me that the CAARS test is made by American doctors, and translated to Japanese. In addition, the evaluation criteria for the test in different nation are weighted differently, because of “cultural differences.”
Has anyone heard of this before? Is it possible that would result in a negative result in my home country might receive a positive result here, and vice-versa?
Thank you in advance for any and all info.
2 comments
I think I did a CAARS test as well. I don’t recall if all the questions were the same but the overall format/method was. I also had to get my parents to answer it as well for childhood symptoms. I was told ADHD could only be clearly diagnosed in childhood, but there was zero mention of test validity changing across cultures.
This might not be that helpful to you, but I was told before taking the test that they wouldn’t be able to tell me that I definitely had ADHD because there might be cultural differences. But they still ended up identifying me as having multiple symptoms and offered treatment, so I wondered if they were just covering their asses!
I’d guess that it’s just that certain behaviours are tolerated and certain behaviours are expected to different extents in different cultures. Since then I’ve read a couple of Japanese-written self help books for adults with ADHD and the main things really do seem to be universal.