The DIVA-5 (the Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in Adults) is a structured clinical interview that walks through each of the eighteen ADHD symptom criteria in turn, in your adult life and in your childhood, with concrete examples for every one. It was developed by the DIVA Foundation, is aligned with the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria, and is one of the most widely used diagnostic instruments for adult ADHD in Europe. If you are comparing providers and wondering what separates a rigorous assessment from a quick chat and a questionnaire, the presence of a structured interview like the DIVA-5 is a large part of the answer.
Key takeaways
- The DIVA-5 is a structured interview covering all eighteen DSM-5 ADHD criteria, in childhood and in adult life.
- A structured instrument makes an assessment systematic, and a recognised one makes your diagnosis credible to GPs and NHS services.
- The DIVA-5 informs the diagnosis; the wider clinical assessment and the psychiatrist’s judgement make it.
Why a structured interview matters
ADHD cannot be confirmed by a scan, a blood sample or an online score: there is no physical test for ADHD. A diagnosis stands or falls on the quality of the clinical interview. A structured instrument matters because it makes that interview systematic:
- Nothing is skipped. All eighteen symptom criteria are assessed, not just the ones that come up naturally in conversation.
- Every symptom is anchored to real examples from your work, home, studies and relationships, rather than a yes/no self-rating.
- Childhood is assessed properly. ADHD is a lifelong condition, and the DSM-5 requires evidence that symptoms were present before the age of twelve. The DIVA-5 examines each symptom in childhood as well as adulthood.
- It is consistent. Two clinicians using the DIVA-5 are asking the same questions to the same standard, which is one reason NICE guideline NG87 expects diagnosis to rest on a full clinical interview conducted by an appropriately qualified specialist.
What the DIVA-5 interview covers
The interview has three parts:
- Inattention symptoms: the nine DSM-5 inattentive criteria, such as difficulty sustaining attention, losing things, and being easily distracted, each explored with examples from adult life and childhood.
- Hyperactivity and impulsivity symptoms: the nine hyperactive-impulsive criteria, from restlessness to interrupting, explored the same way.
- Impairment: how the symptoms have affected five areas of life: work or education, relationships and family, social contacts, free time, and self-esteem. This matters because a diagnosis requires not just symptoms, but symptoms that genuinely interfere with your life, something you may recognise from our guide to the symptoms of adult ADHD.
Where possible, the interview also draws on someone who has known you a long time: a parent, sibling or partner. There is a good reason an assessment asks someone who knew you as a child, and it is nothing to be nervous about.
How the DIVA-5 fits into an assessment at The ADHD Centre
The DIVA-5 is an instrument, not the whole assessment. In your adult ADHD assessment with a Consultant Psychiatrist at The ADHD Centre, the structured interview sits inside a wider 60–90 minute clinical evaluation that also covers your developmental history, your mental and physical health, and the other conditions that can look like ADHD (such as anxiety, depression or sleep problems) so they can be properly ruled in or out.
Every assessment is conducted by a GMC-registered Consultant Psychiatrist, follows DSM-5 criteria and NICE guidelines, and produces a comprehensive diagnostic report with a personalised treatment plan. We have specialised in ADHD since 2009 and are regulated by the Care Quality Commission.
Where the DIVA-5 comes from
The DIVA began life in the Netherlands as the DIVA 2.0, built on the DSM-IV criteria, and was updated to the DIVA-5 when the DSM-5 revised the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, most notably raising the childhood onset threshold from age seven to age twelve, and reducing the number of symptoms required for an adult diagnosis to reflect how ADHD presents after childhood. It is published by the DIVA Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, has been translated into more than twenty languages, and is used across European clinical practice and research.
Its pedigree matters for a practical reason: when your diagnostic report says your assessment included a DIVA-5 interview, any clinician who later reads that report, your GP considering shared care, an NHS service reviewing your diagnosis, an occupational health assessor, knows exactly what standard of evidence sits behind it. A diagnosis anchored to a recognised instrument travels well.
What happens to your DIVA-5 results
The interview is not a scored test that produces a number; it is a structured record of evidence. Your Consultant Psychiatrist weighs it together with everything else in the assessment: your developmental history, any collateral information from someone who knew you as a child, screening measures, and their own clinical observation. Together, these lead to a diagnostic conclusion.
That conclusion arrives as a comprehensive written report: your history, the evidence for each criterion, the diagnosis (or the reasons one was not made; an outcome that, done honestly, is just as valuable), and a personalised treatment plan. If treatment includes medication, the report becomes the clinical foundation for titration and, later, for your GP taking over routine prescribing.
DIVA-5 versus screening questionnaires
Screening questionnaires, including our own free five-minute ADHD quiz, have a genuinely useful job: they indicate whether your experiences are worth investigating. But a screener is a signpost, not a destination. It cannot weigh examples, examine childhood evidence, consider alternative explanations, or exercise clinical judgement. The DIVA-5, in the hands of a Consultant Psychiatrist, does all four. If a provider’s “assessment” is essentially a questionnaire and a short call, that is worth knowing before you book, our guide to what happens in an ADHD assessment sets out what thorough looks like.
Frequently asked questions
How long does the DIVA-5 take? The structured interview typically takes up to an hour within the wider assessment. Your full assessment at The ADHD Centre lasts 60–90 minutes.
Do I need to prepare for the DIVA-5? No revision is needed, and there are no right answers. That said, gathering school reports and thinking of concrete examples beforehand makes the interview richer. Our guide on how to prepare for an ADHD assessment has a practical checklist.
Is the DIVA-5 used for children? The DIVA-5 is designed for adults. Children and young people are assessed with age-appropriate instruments as part of a children’s ADHD assessment.
Can I read the DIVA-5 questions before my assessment? You can (the instrument is publicly available from the DIVA Foundation) but we would gently advise against studying it. The interview works best when your examples are your own, arrived at in conversation, rather than prepared answers. Gathering school reports and real-life examples, as our preparation guide suggests, is preparation that helps; rehearsal is preparation that hinders.
Is a DIVA-5 interview enough for a diagnosis on its own? No single instrument is. The DIVA-5 provides the structured symptom evidence, but a sound diagnosis also requires a full psychiatric history, consideration of other explanations, and clinical judgement, which is why it sits inside a wider assessment rather than replacing one.
Book an Adult ADHD Assessment
If you want your diagnosis built on the standard described here, that is exactly how we work. Our GMC-registered Consultant Psychiatrists provide comprehensive adult ADHD assessments following DSM-5 criteria and NICE guidelines, with a full diagnostic report and a personalised treatment plan. Appointments are usually available within the same week: from £695 online anywhere in the UK, or from £1,095 in person at our London and Manchester clinics.
Book an Adult ADHD Assessment online today, or call our team on 0203 966 1551 and we will help you choose the right option for you.
