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Janna's post has me thinking...
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<blockquote data-quote="smallworld" data-source="post: 88667" data-attributes="member: 2423"><p>T, I've thought about this topic a lot. In my son's case, I don't think we got the diagnosis wrong as much as the diagnosis morphed as he grew and changed. He was always a challenging child, but in 3rd and 4th grade he hated school so much that our pediatrician suggested he undergo neuropsychologist testing. The diagnosis then was ADHD and anxiety, and he did well on Concerta for 1.5 years. (The difference in his ability to complete homework on Concerta was amazing.) In 6th grade J became anxious and moody so we took him to a psychiatrist who prescribed Celexa (he felt tired and apathetic) and then Prozac (3-hour rage reaction after 1 dose). When this psychiatrist became spooked about prescribing medications for J, we switched to a new doctor who prescribed Zoloft in the fall of 7th grade. After 3 weeks he had an intense manic reaction that lasted for months until Depakote could stabilize him. J's new psychiatrist (since November 2005) believes J has bipolar disorder, but he said we will not know for certain until he gets to the other side of puberty. </p><p></p><p>We also redid J's neuropsychologist testing in December 2006 because so much had occurred in the 4 years since the testing was first administered. J has no learning disabilities, no psychosis and no signs of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The neuropsychologist said the mood issues are huge and need the most intervention. He even told us that "ADHD is the least of your problems," but we continue to use stimulants because J has such a hard time attending to schoolwork and homework. J's psychiatrist feels that as long as stimulants help, we should go for it.</p><p></p><p>I recently talked to a child psychiatrist about the difference between mood disorder and BiPolar (BP) because that's the only diagnosis differece I'm concerned about with my children. The psychiatrist said some children have depression with mood dysregulation, but don't actually grow up to have BiPolar (BP). Other children really do have BiPolar (BP) and grow up to have BiPolar (BP) as adults. It is very difficult to sort out what is what with children, but both groups tend to be treated similarly with mood stabilizers and/or atypical antipsychotics.</p><p></p><p>In our case, my kids would not be functioning without medications. In fact, we had 3 psychiatrists tell us we had "no choice" but to put our kids on medications (J because he was suicidal and raging nightly following his reaction to Zoloft; A because she was suicidal and suffering from daily nausea and headaches; and M because she completely stopped eating and ended up in the hosptial being fed via NG tube). But medications are not the entire solution -- my kids also see psychiatrists for weekly psychotherapy. My hope is that the combination of medications and therapy will help them grow up to become healthy, happy and productive adults.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="smallworld, post: 88667, member: 2423"] T, I've thought about this topic a lot. In my son's case, I don't think we got the diagnosis wrong as much as the diagnosis morphed as he grew and changed. He was always a challenging child, but in 3rd and 4th grade he hated school so much that our pediatrician suggested he undergo neuropsychologist testing. The diagnosis then was ADHD and anxiety, and he did well on Concerta for 1.5 years. (The difference in his ability to complete homework on Concerta was amazing.) In 6th grade J became anxious and moody so we took him to a psychiatrist who prescribed Celexa (he felt tired and apathetic) and then Prozac (3-hour rage reaction after 1 dose). When this psychiatrist became spooked about prescribing medications for J, we switched to a new doctor who prescribed Zoloft in the fall of 7th grade. After 3 weeks he had an intense manic reaction that lasted for months until Depakote could stabilize him. J's new psychiatrist (since November 2005) believes J has bipolar disorder, but he said we will not know for certain until he gets to the other side of puberty. We also redid J's neuropsychologist testing in December 2006 because so much had occurred in the 4 years since the testing was first administered. J has no learning disabilities, no psychosis and no signs of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The neuropsychologist said the mood issues are huge and need the most intervention. He even told us that "ADHD is the least of your problems," but we continue to use stimulants because J has such a hard time attending to schoolwork and homework. J's psychiatrist feels that as long as stimulants help, we should go for it. I recently talked to a child psychiatrist about the difference between mood disorder and BiPolar (BP) because that's the only diagnosis differece I'm concerned about with my children. The psychiatrist said some children have depression with mood dysregulation, but don't actually grow up to have BiPolar (BP). Other children really do have BiPolar (BP) and grow up to have BiPolar (BP) as adults. It is very difficult to sort out what is what with children, but both groups tend to be treated similarly with mood stabilizers and/or atypical antipsychotics. In our case, my kids would not be functioning without medications. In fact, we had 3 psychiatrists tell us we had "no choice" but to put our kids on medications (J because he was suicidal and raging nightly following his reaction to Zoloft; A because she was suicidal and suffering from daily nausea and headaches; and M because she completely stopped eating and ended up in the hosptial being fed via NG tube). But medications are not the entire solution -- my kids also see psychiatrists for weekly psychotherapy. My hope is that the combination of medications and therapy will help them grow up to become healthy, happy and productive adults. [/QUOTE]
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