Route toward Diagnosis | ADHD Information
I am curious what people/professionals did you use in the route toward diagnosis?Route and Comments:
Self: highly active from the moment he was born
Pediatrician: "there's a wide range of normal levels of activity; he's at the higher end"
IST (Instructional Support Team): they were careful refrain from any suggestion of possible ADHD.
Family Doctor: referred to =>
Allergist &
Neurologist: dx ADHD
MD: continued management by a group that provides diagnostic and medical management services to children and adults with attention deficit disorder, mood disorders, and behavioral disorders of childhood
I'm interested in your experience. Please share
Psyschiatrist (referred by Ped) who said ADHD
Psycologist-Added ODD
Didn't buy it after stims didn't work so made my own appointment to highly regarded Psychiatrist and got bipolar diagnosis
After going to a conference for bipolar kids, my son didn't fit the bipolar picture at all so made my own appt. with NeuroPsych.
NeuroPsych tested for everything under the sun, including ADHD and finally, after 12 hours, diagonsed PDD-NOS.
Son markedly better now that he is correctly diagnosed with the proper interventions.
Total of nine wrong meds given to son, including every stim other than Dexedrine.
It was a long, long, long road to the right dx. I'm glad I kept looking.
What is PDD-NOS? I'm thinking about taking our ADHD son to a neurologist for tests.It stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified. It is part of the autism spectrum.
I would reccomend a neuropsychologist if you want another evaluation. Here is a link to the difference between a neuropsych and a neurologist:
http://www.fhipa.com/ipa-faqs.html
Self/DH/SD's mother: suspected something was wrong
Therapist: suspected ADHD reccomended we have her evaluated
Pediatrician: confirmed ADHD, we wanted a 2nd opinion
Neuro-psych: confirmed ADHD but wanted us to watch for bipolar due to family history. We had no reason to suspect bipolar at the time because her behavior wasn't too out of hand.
Pediatrician: managed meds (Adderall). He suggested upping dosage from 10-20mg over a 2mth period. We noticed her behavior slightly deteriorate at 15mg, but thought it was due to other factors. Upped to 20mg and she was a wreck, so we pulled her off all meds until we had her evaluated by a psychiatrist.
Psychiatrist: working dx of bipolar disorder combined with ADHD. She put my SD on seroquel 50mg. We just started it a few weeks ago, but we are still having behavior issues.
Self: knew something was wrong at age 2, waited it out, school suspected ADHD and he was put in behavior managementEval through school district at age 4:within normal limits
Pediatrician: dx ADHD/ODD referred for second opinion
Multi-disciplinary team: ODD/CD, possible LD
Psychologist: ADHD/ODD/Bipolar
Child psychiatrist: RAD/ODD
Second psychologist:.....still working on it
School district eliminated possible LD, scored in 89th percentile. Thank you for definition and link!
Age 4 hosptilized at universty hospital dignosed with adhd put on rittllen.
4 grade hosptlized yet again at difrnt universty hospital digsoned with ocd and put on new meds.
10 garde kind of self dignosed my slef with auspergers after reading about it and saying thats me. Talked to my doctor and was dignsoed with auspergers.
Noticed out of place anger at age 2
Diagnosed by child psychiatrist, pediatrition with ADHD, bi-polar, at age 5
Recent stay at hospital by child psychologist dx with psychotic disorder, NOS, ADHD, Hyperactive-Impulsive Type, age 5
Meds don't seem to be working too well, still agry
Self/spouse- suspected something wrong from about 11/2 years
Child psychiatrist-at age 3 too young to diagnose.
Child psychologist-at age 4 "too young to diagnose. Bring back in one year."
We gave up for awhile, but kept in touch with our gp.
Teacher-at age 6. Trouble sitting still in class. Seems to not be able to concentrate. Take this written info to the doctor.
Doctor-we've suspected this for a long time. I think she's ADHD! He put her on adderallXR. This has been gradually increased to 25 mg.
2nd grade teacher notices symptoms that she feels may be OCD.
Doctor-"I'm stumped!" Refers her to his pediatrician friend. I wish he hadn't.
Pediatrician-Too much adderall. Decreases back to 10 mg. AND starts Prozac. What a nightmare!
My daughter then quickly became manic and broke out with a rash all over her body. Back to gp 1 week later.
Doctor- Increase the adderall back to 25 mg (we now tell everyone to leave this alone), gradually tapered off prozac, and start depakote when finished tapering off prozac. Instant improvement. Referral to University hospital for consult.
University hospital-a total waste of time. But did recomend zoloft.
Doctor-upon recieving their report, starts zoloft, as he hated to put someone so young through the required bloodwork. Another disaster! She immediately became manic again. Also claims to have heard voices twice. Behavior was pretty bizarre. Called doctor. Began tapering her off zoloft. Behavior was still hyper, and emotional with crying spells. Had some depakote left, so started this on our own. Instant improvement. We now tell them not to change this also.
Doctor-Felt she may be bi-polar. Would like us to get another consultation-we get to pick the psychiatrist-he will make the referral. We selected one 110 miles away that I could remember from years before. By this time she is in 3rd grade, and unable to focus on the increased homework.
Psychiatrist- Agrees with ADHD diagnosis, but started her on welbutrin to help with focusing. We cringed at a third med, but what a difference. She is now able to focus, and is learning well in school. This has been increased once since starting 5 mos ago. I have had to make 4 trips to this doctor with her, now visits have been decreased to quarterly, with our family doctor filling in every month to 6 weeks.
A long, long road to diagnosis for my 12-year-old son:
2nd grade: Teacher noticed handwriting was sloppy; suggested evaluation; went for evaluation and treatment by OT; no improvement so stopped after 10 sessions.
3rd grade: DS hated school, seemed disorganized and fought doing homework. When we told the ped we thought he was a smart kid who was struggling in school, our ped suggested pscyhoeducational testing. Psychologist found through testing that DS had characteristics of being highly gifted and learning disabled. Recommended reading tutoring, which helped a little but DS hated so stopped.
4th grade: We moved school districts and he still hated school in spite of finding more challenge in math, his strength. Ped suggested further testing with a neuropscyologist, who diagnosed ADHD and anxiety. Ped prescribed Concerta at the end of 4th grade.
5th grade: Uneventful!
6th grade: Entered math/science/computer science middle school magnet program. Extreme anxiety. Started therapy for anxiety. Psychologist suggested DS needed meds. Went to pscyhiatrist who tried Strattera (migraines), Celexa (apathy and fatigue) and Prozac (rage reaction). Psychiatrist got spooked and wouldn't prescribe anything else. Decided to switch to developmental and behavioral pediatrician, who recommended private school to reduce anxiety.
7th grade: Started small progressive private school. Because anxiety was still present, dev ped prescribed Zoloft. After 3.5 weeks, DS had major rage reaction. We decide we're done with SSRIs. After dev ped can't get rages under control, we opt for evaluation by child pscyiatrist, who diagnoses bipolar disorder and starts DS on Depakote.
Diagnosis after 5 years: Bipolar disorder with ADHD, anxiety, tic disorder and migraines. Are we done yet?
I just want to thank all of you that shared the route you have taken toward a diagnosis. I think it may help others see that diagnosis is often not a simple matter, other conditions may exist or mimic ADHD and the importance in selection of doctors and the type of professionals for our children.
Preschool-teachers noted he was "strong willed"
Kindergarten- troube finishing work, moody
Frist grade-difficulty finishing work but had a great teacher and did fine academically but moody and angry, inconsolable.
2nd grade-all hell broke loose. Teacher said "something is wrong" she thought he might be retarded!! Very emotional, unconsolable, angery.The testing began. Went to independent evaluator. This evaluator/advocate was soooo helpful. She could see what was going on and guided us through the dx process as we were in shock and denial and at a loss of what to do and where to begin. She did a battery of tests (I can't recall them all) Went to a developmental center to rule out motor and sensory processing. To a vision specialist to rule out visual processisng and an audiologist to rule out hearing problems. IQ test-off the charts. Also off the charts for adhd. Took him out of that school. The setting was WRONG. Never considered meds, we contacted a classically trained homeopath. Started tx with homeopathy.
3rd grade-so much better, homeopathy has him in control of his emotions, behaviors and moods. Makes honor roll every semester. Still have focusing issues but he is more in control of himself. Have to work closely with teacher for organization.
4th grade-still getting better. Still has issues with focus but it is better than it was last year. Try Interactive Metronome and it helps quite a bit although it is something that needs to be continued.
preschool - fussy about work, perfectionistic, trouble taking turns
K-1 - unstructured environment, never finished "centers" I felt he just needed more structure
2nd grade - excellent teacher, more structure
3rd grade - in GT from here on, trouble finishing work. Stayed in from recess to finish work. (I didn't know how often this was happening.)
4th grade - writing paragraphs and written tests a nightmare. Teacher says she suspects a processing problem. Recommends outside testing because his grades are o.k. I took him to a tutoring center during this year, which for us was a TOTAL waste of $$$.
5th grade - Took him for testing outside school by a Phd in Education/psychologist. Depressed and not finishing work. Processing problem found. Started counseling. Took to a child psych. Inattentive Ad/hd diagnosed. Fought school and got 504.
6th grade - 504 in place. Meds started. The best school year by far. Depression gone. Extra time needed is given through 504.
What does next year hold?
Koko38810.3883796296bump
herre for an experienve in britain
1 1/2 self;something wrong high as a kite,health visitor:problem with speech
2 1/2 health visitor possible adhd,social worker same
3 1/2 educationnal spychologist,child mental health psychologist,new health visitor defenitely adhd
after one week in specialised center.yes he has adhd no won't make it official until 5??no meds as he is too young
Birth to 4 years: Always active, but didn't think anything of it. Just felt he was all boy. A little sensitive, somewhat quirky, we thought he was pretty funny. Developmentally on target, but couldn't concentrate for long periods of time with learning number, abc's, ect...
Pre-School 4years: Did fine socially, made friends, academically on target. Teacher did state many times that he would zone out in class. Also, started to see impulsiveness and trouble sitting still when needed. Still, no real worries.
Kindergarden 5 years: Started to see more problems with impulsiveness. Teacher was fine with this and helped him a lot, but by the end of the year I could see that the contant movement, lack of consentration, and impulsivity was beginning to really show. Talked with ped about it and he said he was way too young to even consider any testing because it wasn't a big problem yet. Said to wait until 1st grade and see how it goes.
First Grade 6 years: This is where we started to see our problems. Although he kept up with all the other kids academically, it was his behaviors that began to get him in trouble. Couldn't stop talking, always interupting the teacher, couldn't sit still, very impulsive, silly behavior. Very long year. Teacher suggested we talk to the doc again, and we agreed.
The summer between 1st and 2nd Grade: Ped doc refuses to dx any kids with ADHD and refered us to a psychologist for further testing. After 5 visits of testing we were informed that our ds was off the charts for ADHD. A little bit of a shock that it was as bad as they said, but releived that we finally knew. He suggested we start medication and refered us back to the ped doc. We started meds.
2nd Grade 7years: DS did great once meds began. He was focused, attentive, and started to get his self estem back that he lost in 1st grade from being labeled "the bad kid". Great teacher with lots of patients. Made all the difference in the world.
3rd Grade 8 years: Another great year. Teacher was outstanding and very empathic with DS struggles. Had to switch meds a few times, but other than that, best school year of all.
Last Summer: Took ds off all meds for the summer. Surprised at how well he did. Was he maturing? Excellent summer. Full of hope. Behaviors were good and he was proud that he was doing so well. We did start to see some anxiety that we never seen before and started back with the psychologist for this.
4th grade 9 years: This has been the year from h***. Started the year without meds and son came and asked to be put back on because he couldn't concentrate. Once we did, they didn't seem to be working the same. We upped the dose and he was worse. Changed meds again and still no improvement. DS hates school, hates his teacher, and doesn't want to be there. Constantly disrupting the class, smarting off to teacher, making noises. Just a nightmare. Teacher is clueless as to how to help my ds and doesn't even want to take the time to help. Back to the psychologist, ped, and finally a full evaluation from a child psychiatrist. Conclusion, ADHD with now severe anxiety. Meds have been changed, son is still struggling, and it has been very emotional. Still don't feel that we have all the answers, but one thing for sure is that his teacher this year is a contributing factor to his behavior. Very reactive, and punishes instead of trying to help change the outcomes. Counting down the days until the end of the school year. Neuro Psych evaluation was suppose to take place last month and doc cancelled and now we have to wait until June. I can't wait to have this eval.
Sorry so long...But it has been a long road.
3 years - I thought he was quite active. Just thought he was being a boy.
6 years - Teacher asked me to take him to doctor. Ped put him on Ritlain.
7 years - med giving side effects. Ped changed him to Dexedrine. Sdie effects worsen. taken off meds.
Grade 3 - med free. Teacher hated this.
Grade 4 - present - back on Ritalin. Doing okay.