CAST ADHD is symptom tracking process completed by patients after they are diagnosed with ADHD and before they start a medication. It was developed by Dr. Aaron Winkler, MD,https://aaronwinklermd.com/about-us founder and former director of the Stanford Adult ADHD Clinic. It is only available to patients through their diagnosing clinician.
Though the process is quite simple and easy to deploy, there are numerous benefits for both patients and clinicians. The process provides powerful insight into the reality of their ADHD symptoms, dramatically simplifying the choice about whether to start a medication. It also dramatically alters the experience of starting medication for those who choose to do so.The process provides evidence of patient engagement, can be used to discern whether a patient is ready to start medication, readily and easily documents pre-medication symptom burden (something which treatment guidelines require but for which, until now, there have been no solutions easily deployed in the real world of a busy clinic), simplifies or eliminates patient indecision about whether to start a medication, and significantly improves both patient adherence to taking a medication precisely as directed and also long-term adherence.
The symptom tracking process takes 1-2 weeks. After being diagnosed, patients are provided a one-time use code to access the CAST ADHD website where they learn the symptom tracking process. They then complete their symptom tracking for 10 days, return for a follow up appointment to share and discuss the results with their clinician, and then medication can be considered and prescribed if the clinician and patient agree it is appropriate.
Interested clinicians can sign up here.https://www.castadhd.org/clinicians-trainingThe CAST ADHD team will reach out within a day or two to schedule a one hour free-of-charge orientation, after which you will be able to use the website to generate access codes for patients. If you have questions, please use the contact form on the right or email us atinfo@castadhd.org
We are currently structuring clinical research to be able to document the benefits of CAST ADHD. But we've seen such incredible benefit that we are making it available immediately. For interested clinicians, details on how to participate in this research will be provided during the orientation.
Patients who would like their clinician to consider using CAST ADHD can copy-paste the following into a message to their clinician in the HIPAA-compliant messaging system that they use to communicate with their clinician: