medtests.de · Childhood ADHD

WURS Test

Every adult ADHD assessment asks one thing: was it already there in childhood? The WURS-25 tackles exactly that question with 25 statements about what you were like as a child, rated from today's perspective. It complements the ASRS, which looks at your current symptoms.

Wender Utah Rating Scale (WURS-25)

Please think back to your childhood. How much did each statement apply to you? Each statement begins: "As a child I was (or had) ..."

25 questions~4 minanonymous, scored in your browsernot a diagnosis

What does the WURS measure?

The Wender Utah Rating Scale asks you to look back at yourself as a child: concentration problems, restlessness, temper, impulsivity, mood swings, self-esteem, trouble with authority, and how school actually went. The 25 scored items are the subset of the original 61-question scale that best distinguished adults with confirmed ADHD. Each item scores 0 to 4, totals run to 100, and in the original study a cutoff of 46 correctly identified 86% of ADHD patients and 99% of controls.

What does the result mean?

Retrospective memory is imperfect. That's a genuine limitation of every childhood-rating scale, and one reason assessments also draw on school reports and parent interviews when they can. Still, a high WURS score plus current symptoms (take the ASRS test here) is exactly the two-part evidence pattern clinicians look for in adult ADHD. Bring both results to your assessment; they give the conversation structure and save time.

Source

Ward MF, Wender PH, Reimherr FW. The Wender Utah Rating Scale: An Aid in the Retrospective Diagnosis of Childhood ADHD. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1993.

Frequently asked questions

Why does the ADHD test ask about childhood?

An adult ADHD diagnosis requires that signs were already present in childhood. The WURS-25 captures exactly that, complementing the ASRS which measures your current symptoms.

How reliable is looking back at childhood?

Memory is never perfect, a real limit of every childhood-rating scale. But a high WURS score plus current symptoms is exactly the two-part pattern clinicians look for in an assessment.

Scoring: what your points mean

Score	Level	What it means
0-35	below the cutoff	below the short form’s common cutoff (46).
36-45	near the cutoff	near the short form’s cutoff.
46-100	at or above the cutoff	at or above the cutoff for childhood ADHD symptoms (46).

The screening cutoff comes from the questionnaire; the finer gradation is editorial orientation. Not a diagnosis.