How And Where To Get An ADHD Diagnosis — Follow These Simple Rules

Imagine having a blood test which could show that your child had ADHD. Dream on! As yet no such test exists. So ADHD diagnosis and how it is performed needs to be looked at carefully because an inaccurate diagnosis could change your child’s life for the worst.

The actual ADHD diagnosis should take into consideration medical, physical and psychological factors. The specialist, who may be a family doctor specializing in ADHD or a child specialist, should first rule out any other condition which sometimes has similar symptoms to that of ADHD.

There is a shocking report in the British Medical Journal which says basically that attention deficit disorder testing is conducted on an instinctive basis rather than strictly adhering to the diagnostic criteria.

The problem of ADHD overdiagnosis

We all know that there is a massive level of over diagnosis of ADHD. According to a report in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, researchers

“found significant evidence of overdiagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder”

in the USA and also in other countries.

Actually, it seems to me that doctors are taking short cuts.

What your doctor may be missing!

Has your doctor looked at possible medical causes? These concern the very real problems of vision or eyesight deficiencies. Health experts are now recommending that a proper eyesight test be given as these problems mimic ADHD. In fact, signs of ADHD in toddlers of restlessness, lack of focus and distraction resemble eyesight problems very closely.

According to a neurologist and sleep specialist at the Methodist Healthcare Sleep Disorders Centre in Memphis, sleep challenges produce remarkably similar symptoms to ADHD. Children may suffer from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) which can cause drowsiness, irritability, distraction and also hyperactivity. Figures reveal that children with these sleep challenges may be at risk of developing behavioral problems very similar to ADHD.

Other conditions are mentioned by Dr. Haber in his book, called appropriately enough, ‘The Great Misdiagnosis’. These can range from thyroid problems, depression, sleep problems and others too numerous to mention here. There is no clinical test for this mental disorder, unfortunately, which just adds to the complications.

The age factor may be more important than we realize

Recently the health authorities in Canada released a report which surveyed about 900,000 children in the British Columbia area. The figures revealed that if the children were younger than their peers, their younger age and immaturity were more often than not taken as a sign that they might have ADHD! With the boys, this was more likely to happen by about 30%. With the girls, it was 70% more likely. Just because their birthdays fell earlier than the others. An age difference may be the first reason to doubt that ADHD is the culprit.

Avoiding the trap of collecting co-morbid disorders

One trap to avoid is collecting acronyms of comorbidities which are all relatives of ADHD so that your child will become one of the ‘alphabet kids’. If you do, you may lose out on getting the best treatment. There are several co-morbid disorders such as sleep disorders, developmentally delayed (DD), mentally retarded (MR) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This usually happens when several opinions are sought and each specialist seems to have their own hobby horse. It seems that everyone is out to discover a new disorder in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD. I would keep to a maximum of two diagnoses.

So, how and where can I get an accurate diagnosis for my child or myself?

I know some parents who are so convinced that their child has ADHD that they will go the rounds of specialists just to find one who agrees with them! Hardly the best way of getting the proper ADHD assessment tests done and certainly not the way to give your child the best chance in life.

So, how do you get a proper analysis and make sure that the pediatrician has carried out all the standard ADHD assessment tests? The first thing to do is to be very wary of a specialist who assesses your child in about ten minutes and then gives you a prescription for a powerful mind-altering drug which is a fancy name for an amphetamine!

Things have moved on, fortunately, but there are some unscrupulous doctors who are prescribing these drugs for two-year-old babies. There was a recent scandal in Florida which revealed this shocking fact.

Other shortcuts to avoid

Other shortcuts to avoid are the online tests which can be quite appealing in that they are fairly quick and easy. These are not accurate and cannot be relied on as valid ADHD assessment tests. Another pitfall to avoid is to politely ignore any advice given on medications by the child’s school teacher. I know of one school where the teachers insisted that the child be given Ritalin. The parents wisely moved the child to another school.

Another thing to insist on is to ask the specialist to actually rule out all the other conditions which actually mimic ADHD. There may be between thirty and fifty of them as I have mentioned above.

There are various questionnaires to be filled in by both parents and teachers. Then the family medical history should be looked at. There are various scales used to assess and the main one is used is the Connors scale. These scales assess the child based on all the psychological, behavioral and learning behavior information gathered in the questionnaires.

If you are not satisfied with the ADHD assessment procedure, you should seek a second opinion. If your child is diagnosed with ADHD, the next step is to look at the treatment options.

Action points to follow in getting a proper diagnosis

Finding reliable and serious doctors for treating ADHD. Here are a few steps to follow.

1. Are there doctors for ADHD treatment in your area? Ask your family doctor. These may include pediatricians and/or psychologists.

2. Make a shortlist and start to contact these doctors on your list. You want to find out initially if and how much they know about ADHD and what are their qualifications. This can be checked in some cases from their websites. Narrow your list now to the top three.

3. You can also do a check to see if any of the top three doctors for treating ADHD are in the Better Business Bureau. If they are, it means that they are properly qualified and are not charlatans. There will also be an indication if there are any issues still outstanding which might be a red flag for you.

4. Ask for a free consultation which should be an exploratory one. If this is not possible, there should be a specially low fee for this but it should not be the price of a full consultation. Consultations with a psychologist can be quite expensive so a much cheaper option is to seek out a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC). The difference is that these counselors are at a Master’s level while the clinical psychologists usually have a doctorate in their specialization.

5. Make sure the doctor uses the correct criteria as mentioned in the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, commonly referred to as the DSM-V.

There are various questionnaires to be filled in by both parents and teachers. Then the family medical history should be looked at. There are various scales used to assess the child based on all the psychological, behavioral and learning behavior information gathered in the questionnaires.

If you are not satisfied with the ADHD assessment procedure, you should seek a second opinion. If your child is diagnosed with ADHD, the next step is to look at the treatment options. We will cover this in the next article.

Here are some of the other articles I have written on ADHD.