Over the past six months, how often have you been bothered by…
Never0
Rarely1
Sometimes2
Often3
Very often4
Score
01How often do you have difficulty concentrating on what people say to you, even when they are speaking to you directly?
-
02How often do you leave your seat in meetings or other situations in which you are expected to remain seated?
-
03How often do you have difficulty unwinding and relaxing when you have time to yourself?
-
04When you're in a conversation, how often do you find yourself finishing the sentences of the people you are talking to before they can finish them themselves?
-
05How often do you put things off until the last minute?
-
06How often do you depend on others to keep your life in order and attend to details?
-
0-3score item↑↓moveScored locally - nothing leaves this page
0 of 6
0 / 24
ASRS-50 / 6
Over the past six months, how often have you been bothered by…
Scored locally - nothing leaves this page
01How often do you have difficulty concentrating on what people say to you, even when they are speaking to you directly?
02How often do you leave your seat in meetings or other situations in which you are expected to remain seated?
03How often do you have difficulty unwinding and relaxing when you have time to yourself?
04When you're in a conversation, how often do you find yourself finishing the sentences of the people you are talking to before they can finish them themselves?
05How often do you put things off until the last minute?
06How often do you depend on others to keep your life in order and attend to details?
The ASRS-5 (Adult ADHD Self-Report Screening Scale for DSM-5) is a six-item screener for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in adults. Respondents rate how often each experience has occurred over the past six months, from never (0) to very often (4). The items sample difficulty sustaining attention in conversation, restlessness, trouble unwinding, interrupting others, procrastination and reliance on others for organisation - a deliberately broad slice of the inattentive and hyperactive-impulsive presentations rather than a full symptom inventory.
Unlike checklists that mirror the eighteen DSM-5 symptom criteria one-to-one, the ASRS-5 was built empirically: its six questions were selected by a machine-learning algorithm because, in combination, they best discriminated adults with a clinician-confirmed DSM-5 diagnosis from those without. The result is a scale that behaves less like a symptom count and more like a calibrated risk score for whether a full ADHD assessment is warranted.
02 - Origin & purpose
Where it comes from.
The ASRS-5 was published in 2017 by Ustun, Adler, Kessler and colleagues in JAMA Psychiatry, as an update of the widely used WHO ASRS v1.1 Screener developed with the World Health Organization in the early 2000s. The revision was prompted by DSM-5's changes to adult ADHD criteria - a later age-of-onset threshold and a lower symptom count for adults - which meant the older screener no longer mapped cleanly onto the diagnosis it was screening for.
The developers pooled a general-population sample (a follow-up of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication) with a managed-care subscriber sample, benchmarked responses against semi-structured clinical interviews (the Adult ADHD Clinical Diagnostic Scale), and used a risk-calibrated sparse linear model to choose the item set and scoring weights. The stated purpose is triage: a two-minute self-report that tells a service which adults merit a diagnostic interview, not an instrument that makes the diagnosis itself.
03 - Scoring & cutoffs
How scoring works.
Each of the six items is scored 0-4 (never, rarely, sometimes, often, very often), giving a total of 0-24. A total of 14 or more is a positive screen and indicates that a structured diagnostic assessment for adult ADHD is warranted. There are no graded severity bands: the ASRS-5 was designed and validated as a binary screen, and totals above 14 should not be read as a severity measure.
Score
Severity
Interpretation
0–13
Below threshold
Unlikely to have ADHD on this screen.
14–24
Positive screen
At or above the cutoff of 14. Further evaluation for ADHD is warranted.
04 - Validation evidence
How well it performs.
In the original validation, the scale performed strongly in the general population. Weighted to the estimated 8.2% DSM-5 adult ADHD prevalence, the ≥14 cutoff identified 91.4% of true cases (sensitivity) while correctly ruling out 96.0% of non-cases (specificity), with an area under the curve of 0.94. In the NYU Langone specialty clinical sample, where prevalence was far higher (57.7%), sensitivity held at 91.9% while specificity fell to 74.0% (AUC 0.83) - a familiar pattern for screeners moving from community to clinic. Positive predictive value was 67.3% in the weighted general-population data and 82.8% in the clinical sample.
Subsequent independent work supports the scale beyond its development samples. A German-language validation in primary care (n=262) reported sensitivity of 95.6% and specificity of 72.3% against a diagnostic interview, with internal consistency of Cronbach's α = 0.88 (McDonald's ω = 0.86). A 2025 Danish general-population study supported the construct validity of the ASRS-5 as a unidimensional measure. Test-retest reliability has not been prominently reported for the six-item version.
91.4%
Sensitivity
General population, cutoff ≥14
96.0%
Specificity
General population, cutoff ≥14
0.94
AUC
Weighted general-population sample
0.88
Cronbach's α
German primary-care validation
05 - How it compares
How it compares to the alternatives.
Instrument
Items
Time
When to reach for it
ASRS-5
6
~2 min
Fast DSM-5-calibrated screen for adults; the default first step.
ASRS v1.1 Screener
6
~2 min
The DSM-IV-era predecessor; still common in older care pathways and research.
Licensed multi-scale profile with validity indices; comprehensive assessment.
DIVA-5
Interview
60-90 min
Semi-structured diagnostic interview; confirming the diagnosis, not screening.
WURS-25
25
~10 min
Retrospective self-report of childhood symptoms to support the onset criterion.
06 - When to use it
Right tool, wrong tool.
The ASRS-5 earns its place as a triage instrument: it tells you who needs a diagnostic assessment, and nothing more.
Reach for it when
-Screening adults presenting with concentration, organisation or restlessness complaints.
-Triaging referrals before allocating diagnostic-interview slots.
-Case-finding in primary care and general mental-health settings.
-A quick structured starting point when ADHD is raised in a consultation.
Reach for something else when
-Making or confirming an ADHD diagnosis - this requires clinical interview, developmental history and informant input.
-Grading symptom severity or tracking medication response - use the ADHD-RS-5 for that.
-Children and adolescents under 18, for whom it was not developed.
-Settings where a positive screen cannot be followed by proper assessment.
07 - Confidence & precision
Reading the score with care.
The ASRS-5 is a binary screen, and its precision characteristics should be read that way. A standard error of measurement and a minimal clinically important difference have not been established for the six-item version, and the developers did not design it to quantify change over time.
In practical terms: treat scores near the cutoff (roughly 12-16) as genuinely uncertain and let clinical context decide whether to assess, and do not interpret a two- or three-point shift between administrations as meaningful improvement or deterioration. For change measurement, use a full symptom scale such as the ADHD-RS-5.
08 - Limitations
What it cannot tell you.
The scale is self-report only, with no informant corroboration and no validity indices, so it is open to both under-reporting and over-reporting - a live concern where assessment outcomes affect access to stimulant medication or academic adjustments. Its positive predictive value falls in low-prevalence settings, so many positive screens in unselected populations will not be confirmed on interview.
Items overlap with symptoms of anxiety, depression, insomnia and other conditions, which inflates scores in psychiatric samples - reflected in the specificity drop from 96% in the community to 74% in a specialty clinic. It covers six markers, not the full DSM-5 criterion set, and cannot establish childhood onset or cross-situational impairment. Finally, it was validated in adults; adolescent use is investigational.
See how Aisel removes friction where it costs most. A 20-minute walkthrough tailored to your clinic.
We value your privacy
We use cookies to analyse site usage and improve your experience. Analytics and embedded media (e.g. YouTube) only load if you accept. Read our cookie policy.