The ASRS (Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale) is a screening questionnaire developed by the World Health Organization to help identify symptoms of ADHD in adults. It contains 18 questions about attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity, and takes only a few minutes to complete. It is not a diagnostic tool on its own but rather a first step that flags whether a full clinical evaluation is warranted.
How the ASRS Is Structured
The full ASRS contains 18 questions designed to reflect how ADHD symptoms show up in adult life. Each question asks how frequently you experience a specific behavior, with response options ranging from “never” to “very often.” The questions align with established diagnostic criteria and cover both inattention (difficulty listening, losing focus, procrastinating) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (fidgeting, interrupting others, feeling driven to stay busy).
The questionnaire is split into two parts. Part A contains six questions that function as a quick screener. If four or more of your answers in Part A fall above certain frequency thresholds, your symptoms are considered highly consistent with adult ADHD and further evaluation is recommended. Part B contains the remaining 12 questions, which provide additional detail about your symptom profile but are mainly used to guide conversation with a clinician rather than to change the screening result.
How Scoring Works
There are two ways to score the six-question screener in Part A. The original method uses a simple yes/no approach: each item gets 1 point if your response crosses a specific frequency threshold, creating a 0 to 6 scale. A score of 4 or higher counts as a positive screen.
An updated scoring system, developed at Harvard Medical School, assigns point values to every response: 0 for “never,” 1 for “rarely,” 2 for “sometimes,” 3 for “often,” and 4 for “very often.” This creates a 0 to 24 scale with more nuance. A total of 14 or higher screens positive for ADHD. Scores break down into four levels: 0 to 9 is low negative, 10 to 13 is high negative, 14 to 17 is low positive, and 18 to 24 is high positive. The graduated scale gives clinicians a better sense of symptom severity rather than a simple positive-or-negative result.
What the ASRS Can and Cannot Tell You
The ASRS is strong at ruling ADHD out. Its negative predictive value exceeds 95%, meaning if you screen negative, it’s very unlikely you have ADHD. In general population surveys, the screener showed a specificity of 99.5%, meaning it rarely flags people who don’t have the condition.
However, screening positive is a different story. The positive predictive value of the ASRS is estimated at only 12% to 22%. That means the majority of people who score above the cutoff on the screener will not ultimately receive an ADHD diagnosis after a full evaluation. Many things can mimic ADHD symptoms: anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation, stress, and other conditions all affect concentration and impulse control in similar ways. A positive ASRS result signals that something worth investigating is going on, but it does not confirm what that something is.
The Updated ASRS-5
The original ASRS was built around older diagnostic criteria (DSM-IV), which were designed primarily with children in mind. A newer version called the ASRS-5 was developed to align with updated criteria that better account for how ADHD presents across the lifespan. The updated diagnostic standards added examples of how symptoms look in adults specifically and lowered the required symptom count from six to five for older adolescents and adults.
The ASRS-5 keeps the same user-friendly format: a short list of items with simple scoring. Its six items cover a mix of inattention symptoms (such as not listening when spoken to directly), executive dysfunction (putting things off until the last minute, depending on others to keep life organized), and hyperactivity/impulsivity (leaving your seat when expected to stay, feeling internally “driven by a motor,” blurting out answers before questions are finished).
What Happens After Screening
A positive screen on the ASRS is the beginning of the process, not the end. A comprehensive ADHD evaluation typically involves a detailed clinical interview covering your symptoms across your entire lifespan, not just how things have felt recently. Clinicians also look for collateral information, often asking a partner, family member, or close friend to describe patterns they’ve observed. This helps confirm that the difficulties are longstanding rather than a response to a temporary situation.
The evaluation also involves ruling out other explanations. Because so many conditions overlap with ADHD in how they affect daily functioning, a clinician needs to assess whether anxiety, mood disorders, sleep problems, or substance use could better account for the symptoms. Functional impairment matters too. The question isn’t just whether you experience these behaviors, but whether they meaningfully interfere with work, relationships, or daily responsibilities.
The ASRS itself is free, publicly available, and requires no special training to complete. Many primary care providers use it as a routine screening tool, and you can fill it out on your own before bringing the results to an appointment. It works best as a conversation starter: a structured way to communicate what you’ve been experiencing so your provider can decide whether a full evaluation makes sense.