Method and apparatus for determining attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication dosage and for monitoring the effects of ADHD medication on people who have ADHD using complementary tests

A method of adjusting a medication to treat ADHD comprising:

• administering an initial dosage of a medication to an individual who has ADHD;
• after waiting a period of time for the medication to take effect, conducting an analysis of the peripheral skin temperatures of said individual including the processes of sampling, differentiation, filtering, conversion to the frequency domain, and comparison to predetermined values;
• and
• based on said comparison:
• (a) maintaining said dosage if said comparison is now not indicative of ADHD, or
• (b) increasing said dosage if said comparison is still indicative of ADHD.

Apparatus for determining the appropriate dosage of a medication to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in an individual who has ADHD comprising:

• a device for sampling the peripheral skin temperature of left and right like extremities of an individual during a predetermined time interval when the subject is in a sensory deprived state to provide respective left and right sampled peripheral skin temperature data;
• and
• a processor for carrying out:
• a first processing of at least one of said left and right sampled peripheral skin temperature data providing conversion to the frequency domain to derive a first spectral signature having magnitude values;
• a second processing of both said left and right sampled peripheral skin temperature data to derive temporally correlated differential data;
• said second processing further filtering said differential data with a high pass filter to produce filtered differential data with near d. c. components removed;
• said second processing lastly providing conversion to the frequency domain of said filtered differential data to derive a second spectral signature having magnitude values;
• a third processing of the said first spectral signature for the determination of the level of manifestation of ADHD by comparison to a predetermined first threshold value;
• a fourth processing of the said second spectral signature for the determination of the level of manifestation of ADHD by comparison to a predetermined threshold value;
• and
• a fifth processing wherein an assessment of the bi-modal quality of the results of the third and fourth processing is made, to provide a final determination of one of the following three possibilities:
• a various level of dosage change;
• dosage level is adequate;
• there is noise in the data.