Adult ADHD Testing and Evaluation in NYC

Search for "ADHD testing in NYC" and you will find three very different things sold under the same name: a short online questionnaire, a psychiatric diagnostic evaluation, and a neuropsychological test battery that can run for hours. They answer different questions. Only one of them is needed to diagnose adult ADHD in standard practice, and only one of them can lead straight to a treatment plan that includes medication. This page explains the difference honestly, says which one Dr. Shershow provides, and covers the New York rules and documents that tend to matter to adults in the city.

Three things people call "ADHD testing"

The CDC puts the central point in one sentence: "There is no single test to diagnose ADHD." No blood test, brain scan or computer task settles it. A diagnosis rests on history and function: enough symptoms, several of them present before age 12 (as NIMH describes the criteria), showing up in more than one setting, causing real impairment, and not better explained by something else.

The screening questionnaire has a New York footnote

The DSM-5 version of the ASRS, published in JAMA Psychiatry in 2017, is six questions long. Its clinical validation sample included adults evaluated through the Adult ADHD Program at NYU Langone in Manhattan. In a general population sample it identified 91.4% of people who had ADHD and correctly cleared 96.0% of people who did not. Its positive predictive value was 67.3%, which means about one in three positive screens was a false alarm.

That is what a good screener looks like: useful for deciding whether to book an evaluation, not a diagnosis. A high score can come from anxiety, depression, poor sleep or a stressful year, which are exactly the explanations an evaluation is built to sort out. The adult ADHD self-test on this site uses the older ASRS v1.1 six-question screener, so the DSM-5 figures above do not describe it directly. Taking it and bringing your answers to the first visit is still a reasonable way to start.

What Dr. Shershow's evaluation is, and is not

What Dr. Shershow offers adults is a psychiatric diagnostic evaluation. It is a conversation with a physician, supported by rating scales and whatever records and outside input you can bring, and it ends with what the evaluation found and which treatment options fit. It is not a timed battery of tests and does not produce a neuropsychological report with standard scores. If you need scores, for example because a school or exam board requires them, you would get that testing from a psychologist. The steps are described on the adult ADHD evaluation page.

A practical advantage of starting with a psychiatrist: if the evaluation points to ADHD and medication is a reasonable option, the same physician can discuss it and, when appropriate, prescribe and follow up. There is no second handoff.

When neuropsychological testing is worth paying for

Testing has a real place. A 2024 review in American Family Physician says neuropsychological testing "may increase diagnostic accuracy" for adult ADHD in three situations:

• collateral information is missing (nobody can describe your childhood and no school records survive);
• malingering is suspected;
• other conditions confuse the picture.

CHADD adds that cognitive and academic testing can show how ADHD affects a particular person and can identify a co-existing learning disability. If you have always struggled with reading or math out of proportion to everything else, that is a good reason to ask about testing.

Who does it matters. New York's Education Law 7601-a defines the practice of psychology as including the diagnosis and treatment of mental, cognitive and behavioral disorders through psychological means, and it says nothing about medication. The New York State Psychological Association's June 2026 legislative report says its bill to give psychologists prescriptive authority was still being reworked when the 2026 session ended. So a psychologist can test and diagnose, but anyone who wants to discuss medication afterward will still need a prescriber.

Order matters too. Buying a full battery first "to be safe" can cost thousands of dollars and still leave you needing a prescriber's evaluation. A psychiatric evaluation first lets the clinician tell you whether testing would change anything. The trade-offs are laid out in ADHD evaluation vs. neuropsychological testing.

If the evaluation is for the New York bar or another exam

Many adults in New York City look for an ADHD assessment because of an exam. The New York State Board of Law Examiners publishes specific documentation guidelines for ADHD (revised March 2025), and they are stricter than what treatment needs:

• Documentation generally must be no more than five years old, although the Board will consider older documentation from an evaluation done at age 21 or older.
• Information must "consist of more than self-report," and third-party sources are called critical.
• The Board asks for evidence of a chronic course from childhood, such as transcripts, report cards and teacher comments.
• A neuropsychological or psycho-educational assessment "may be necessary," and checklists by themselves are not adequate.
• A positive response to medication is not, by itself, treated as supporting the diagnosis.

Other testing agencies and graduate schools set their own rules. Read the requester's guidelines before you book anything, and bring them to the visit. No clinician can promise that an exam board will accept a report. The exam side is covered in ADHD accommodations for the bar exam and licensing exams and on the ADHD evaluation for accommodations in NYC page.

The New York rule about where you are

The New York State Education Department says a practitioner must hold a New York license, or be otherwise authorized, when providing services to a patient located in New York. For a video visit, what counts is where you are sitting, not your home address. Dr. Shershow is licensed in New York and New Jersey, and video visits are for patients physically located in New York or New Jersey at the time. If you will be elsewhere, reschedule.

What to bring to make the evaluation count

• Old report cards or transcripts, especially teacher comments from elementary school.
• Any earlier evaluation, test report or school plan, even a partial one.
• A list of current medications and supplements, and anything you have tried for focus or sleep.
• Someone who knew you as a child (a parent or older sibling) who can answer a short questionnaire or join part of a visit.
• Documentation rules from any school, employer or exam board you plan to send the results to.

A fuller checklist is in how to prepare for an adult ADHD evaluation.

Cost questions to ask

Prices quoted online for NYC evaluations are mostly unverified, and testing batteries usually cost far more than a psychiatric evaluation. Ask any provider what the fee covers, how many visits it includes, whether a written summary is part of it, and how insurance works. For this practice, call the office: staff can tell you the current fees and how insurance works with the practice. Background is on the fees and insurance page and in what an adult ADHD evaluation costs in New York.