About the ASRS v1.1 screener
Short answer
The ASRS v1.1 Adult ADHD Self-Report Screener is a six-question questionnaire for adults 18 and older, created by Dr. Lenard Adler of NYU and Dr. Ronald Kessler of Harvard. You rate how often each experience happened over the past six months. Four or more answers in the shaded boxes is a positive screen, which suggests a fuller evaluation may help. It is not a diagnostic tool.
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Limitations of the ASRS screener
The ASRS v1.1 screener asks six questions about the past six months. It does not ask about childhood, does not look at how many areas of life are affected, cannot tell ADHD apart from sleep problems, anxiety, depression, or stress, and relies on your own view of yourself. That is why its developers say it is not a standalone diagnostic tool.
The ASRS: 6 questions vs 18 questions
The six-question ASRS v1.1 Screener is a subset of the 18-question ASRS v1.1 Symptom Checklist. Those six questions form Part A of the full checklist, and Part B holds the other twelve. The short version exists for quick screening. NYU says people who screen positive may benefit from completing the full checklist with their clinician.
When to talk to a professional
Talk to a health care provider when attention, organization, restlessness, or impulsivity problems are affecting your work, studies, relationships, or wellbeing, whatever your screening outcome. A positive screen is a good reason to book an appointment. A negative screen is not a reason to ignore real difficulties. A primary care provider or GP is a common first stop.
The screener on ADHDFalcon is an electronic version of an existing, published questionnaire. We did not write it, and we are not allowed to change it. This page explains where it comes from and how it works, so you know exactly what you are using.
Key facts
- Full name
- Adult ADHD Self-Report Screener (ASRS v1.1), six-question version
- Created by
- Dr. Lenard Adler (NYU) and Dr. Ronald Kessler (Harvard)
- Intended for
- Adults 18 and older
- Questions
- Six, each about how often something has happened
- Time frame
- The past six months
- Answer options
- Five, from Never to Very Often
- Positive screen
- Four or more answers falling in the shaded boxes
- What it is not
- A standalone diagnostic tool
- Attribution
- © New York University and the President and Fellows of Harvard College
Where it came from
How it may be used
ADHDFalcon uses the patient-facing, shaded version. The question wording appears only inside the screener itself, exactly as published. We do not reword it, and we do not reproduce it on information pages.
The questions are about frequency. For each one, you pick the option that best describes how often something has happened to you over the past six months. Answer for your typical experience across that time, not just your best or worst week.
What the outcome means
A starting point for your next step.
Take the official six-question screener free and see your outcome right away.Why we use a published tool
It would be easy to write a new quiz with friendlier wording. We chose not to. A published screener has been studied, has a defined scoring rule, and was designed to help clinicians, so the outcome means the same thing here as it would on paper in a clinic. A homemade quiz has none of that, and its result would be hard for a clinician to interpret.
The trade-off is that you see the screener exactly as written, including its fixed answer options and its six-month time frame.
Read more about the ASRS
- 6 vs 18 questions: how the short screener relates to the full checklist.
- Limitations: what the screener cannot measure, and why that matters.
- When to talk to a professional: what to do with your outcome, positive or negative.
ASRS v1.1 Screener © New York University and the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Frequently asked questions
Who made the ASRS?
Dr. Lenard Adler of NYU and Dr. Ronald Kessler of Harvard created the ASRS v1.1 Screener. The original scale was developed in connection with World Health Organization survey work.
How is the ASRS screener scored?
Each answer either falls in a shaded box or not. Four or more answers in the shaded boxes counts as a positive screen. The outcome is positive or negative, not a percentage.
Is the ASRS a diagnosis?
No. NYU, which licenses it, describes it as a screening aid rather than a diagnostic tool in its own right.
Why does ADHDFalcon not show the questions here?
The screener may be used only in its published form, so the questions live inside the screener itself. Information pages describe it without repeating its wording.
Sources
Source check: 2026-10-28. No medical review has occurred.
- NYU Langone TOV, ASRS v1.1 6-Question Screener license page
- Kessler RC, Adler L, Ames M, et al. The World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS): a short screening scale for use in the general population. Psychological Medicine. 2005;35(2):245-256.
- Kessler RC, Adler LA, Gruber MJ, Sarawate CA, Spencer T, Van Brunt DL. Validity of the World Health Organization Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) Screener in a representative sample of health plan members. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. 2007;16(2):52-65.
Published 2026-10-28. Factual source check: ADHDFalcon editorial team, factual source check, 2026-10-28. No medical review has occurred.