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Assignment questions
NursingDiscussion postChild adolescent psychiatry

NU674 Unit 6 DQ 1: assessing ADHD and depression

After reading the Daviss and Bond article on comorbid ADHD and depression, discuss the distinct considerations that apply to the psychiatric interview and assessment of children, and define how you would progress with a comprehensive assessment of a child with suspected ADHD, depression, or both.

Editorial process

Last reviewed · August 14, 2026

01

The child is not the only informant

What makes a child psychiatric interview distinct is that the clinician is working with several informants and none of them is complete. The child's own account is limited by developmental vocabulary for internal states and by the fact that they did not choose to attend; parents report observable behaviour and carry their own distress into the history; teachers see the child in the setting where attention and function are most tested but know nothing of home. Cross-informant disagreement is the normal case, not a problem to be resolved by picking the most credible witness. Add the practical differences — you need developmentally appropriate language, play or drawing for younger children, separate time with the adolescent alone, an explicit conversation about confidentiality and its limits, attention to the family system, and a mandated-reporting duty that shapes what you ask and what you must do with the answer.

The second question asks you to define a progression, so give a staged one rather than a list of components. Begin with a broad screen and a full developmental, medical, family and school history, and collect standardised rating scales from more than one informant, since ADHD criteria require impairment across settings. Rule out the medical and situational mimics before diagnosing either condition — sleep disorder, hearing or vision impairment, thyroid dysfunction, learning disability, substance use, trauma and bereavement all produce inattention or low mood. Then work the overlap the article is about: inattention is a symptom of depression as well as a criterion for ADHD, so the timeline decides. Longstanding inattention present since early childhood across settings points at ADHD; inattention that appeared with a mood change points at depression; both patterns together mean both diagnoses, which is common. Close with safety assessment and with what you would do about sequencing treatment, since treating one condition affects the other.

Likely learning objectives

Inferred from the brief — check these against your own rubric.

  • 01
    Identify what makes a child psychiatric interview structurally different from an adult one.
  • 02
    Handle cross-informant disagreement as expected rather than as error.
  • 03
    Design a staged assessment that rules out mimics before diagnosing.
  • 04
    Use symptom timeline to disentangle ADHD from depression when both are possible.
  • 05
    Incorporate confidentiality, safeguarding and safety assessment into the plan.
Assignment instructionsQuoted verbatim

Read the full question

Review every instruction before using the planning guidance that follows.

NU674-7 Unit 6 DQ 1 Discussion Prompt Review the article “Comorbid ADHD and depression: Assessment and treatment strategies” Daviss, W. B., MD, & Bond, J. B., MD. (2016, September 7). Comorbid ADHD and depression: Assessment and treatment strategies(Links to an external site.). Psychiatric Times, 33(9). Discuss distinct considerations linked with the psychiatric interview and assessment of children. Define how you would progress with a comprehensive assessment of a child with suspected ADHD, depression, or both. Support your statements with a minimum of 2 scholarly articles. Responses need to address all components of the question, demonstrate critical thinking and analysis and include peer-reviewed journal evidence to support the student’s position. Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with in-text citations and corresponding references in APA format. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets the criteria. Estimated time to complete: 2 hours Discussion Peer/Participation Prompt Please respond to at least 2 of your peer’s posts with substantive comments using the following steps: Substantive comments add to the discussion and provide your fellow students with information that will enhance the learning environment. NU674-7 Unit 6 DQ 1 References and citations should conform to APA standards. Remember: Please respect the opinions of others, even if their views differ. In other words, disagree professionally and respectfully. Plagiarism is never acceptable – give credit when credit is due – cite your sources. Responses need to address all components of the question, demonstrate critical thinking and analysis and include peer-reviewed journal evidence to support the student’s position. Please be sure to validate your opinions and ideas with in-text citations and corresponding references in APA format. Please review the rubric to ensure that your response meets the criteria. Collaboration points will be forfeited if you fail to meet the response post guidelines. Estimated time to complete: 1 hour
Course-wide instructions that accompany this question

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS Discussion Questions (DQ) Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words. Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source. One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words. I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses. Weekly Participation Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately. In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies. Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work). Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. APA Format and Writing Quality Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required). Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation. I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition. Use of Direct Quotes I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly. As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content. It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source. LopesWrite Policy For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me. Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes. Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own? Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Late Policy The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies. Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances. If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect. I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension. As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading. Communication Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me: Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class. Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.

02

Turn the brief into deliverables

  1. 01
    The distinct considerations in interviewing and assessing children.
  2. 02
    The role of multiple informants and how disagreement is handled.
  3. 03
    A defined progression for a comprehensive assessment.
  4. 04
    The medical and situational conditions ruled out along the way.
  5. 05
    How you would distinguish ADHD, depression, or both.
  6. 06
    A minimum of two scholarly articles cited in APA format.
03

Considerations first, then a staged assessment

01

Why a child interview is different

Set out developmental, family and consent differences up front.

02

Multiple informants

Explain what child, parent and teacher each contribute and where they diverge.

03

Confidentiality and safeguarding

Set out what is promised, what cannot be, and the reporting duty.

04

Stage one: history and screening

Developmental, medical, family and school history plus rating scales.

05

Stage two: ruling out mimics

Exclude sleep, sensory, endocrine, learning, substance and trauma explanations.

06

Stage three: separating ADHD from depression

Use onset and timeline, then assess safety and treatment sequencing.

04

Sources for both conditions and their overlap

Recommended databases

  • The assigned Daviss and Bond article in Psychiatric Times
  • StatPearls via NCBI Bookshelf
  • PubMed
  • American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry practice parameters
  • CINAHL

Search sequence

  1. 1.
    Read the assigned article first and note its assessment recommendations.
  2. 2.
    Confirm the ADHD criterion requiring impairment in more than one setting.
  3. 3.
    List the medical and situational mimics of inattention and of low mood.
  4. 4.
    Find evidence on cross-informant agreement in child assessment.
  5. 5.
    Note guidance on treatment sequencing when both conditions are present.
05

Reference shortlist

These are authoritative starting points, not a ready-made bibliography. A qualified reviewer must confirm that each source fits the assignment and supports the claim beside which it is cited.

Nothing here is cleared for citation until you have read it.

  1. 01

    Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

    StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023

    Diagnostic criteria including the cross-setting impairment requirement that shapes the assessment.

  2. 02

    Major Depressive Disorder

    StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023

    The depression criteria whose inattention overlaps with ADHD, which is what the timeline resolves.

  3. 03

    Bipolar Disorder

    StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023

    A third possibility the assessment has to be able to exclude before treating.

  4. 04

    Informed Consent

    StatPearls, NCBI Bookshelf · 2023

    Assent, parental consent and confidentiality limits with a minor patient.

06

Review before submission

Common mistakes

  • Describing an adult interview with children mentioned.
  • Treating informant disagreement as an obstacle rather than as data.
  • Listing assessment components with no order or logic.
  • Diagnosing without excluding sleep, hearing, learning and trauma explanations.
  • Ignoring the comorbidity the assigned article is specifically about.
  • Omitting confidentiality limits and safeguarding duties.

Submission checklist

  • Multiple informants are addressed, including how they disagree.
  • Developmental adaptations to the interview are named.
  • Confidentiality and its limits are discussed.
  • The assessment progression is staged and ordered.
  • Mimics are ruled out before diagnosis is discussed.
  • The ADHD/depression overlap is resolved by timeline or another stated criterion.

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Written by

Aaron Bishop

MA, Education

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Aaron leads the EssayCrackers editorial desk. He works on how assignment briefs are read — what a rubric is actually asking for, and where students most often answer a different question than the one set.

Reviewed by

Dr. Nathan Cole

PhD, Rhetoric & Composition

Argumentation and thesis development

Nathan teaches first-year composition and directs a university writing center. He reviews EssayCrackers guides for argumentative soundness and citation accuracy.

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