 ADHD is diagnosed by an assessment of a person 's childhood behavioral and mental development , including ruling out the effects of drugs , medications and other medical or psychiatric problems as explanations for the symptoms . It often takes into account feedback from parents and teachers with most diagnoses begun after a teacher raises concerns . It may be viewed as the extreme end of one or more continuous human traits found in all people . Whether someone responds to medications does not confirm or rule out the diagnosis . As imaging studies of the brain do not give consistent results between individuals , they are only used for research purposes and not diagnosis . 
