does moving have to mean a complete rediagnosis?

Wow, I never thought that might happen either. I’m not an expert but I would consider ADD to be a pre-existing medical condition when you transfer to another doctor.

I could reasonably see the new doctor wanting your son’s records transferred before writing a new prescription, but I can’t imagine having to go through the whole evaluation process again.

Plus, I he is being evaluated while he is on the meds you still have, that’s not an accurate report of observations, since behaviors would not be the same as unmedicated.

The only option left to you would be to take him off the meds to go through the eval properly, right? That makes no sense.

I would think that if you have all of the proper records (doctor and school records indicating that they are aware that he was on meds) then that should be sufficient.

Can you call your previous doctor and see what they say about the situation?

Please post whatever you find out. I would like to share this issue with the ADD / ADHD group that I belong to.

If the dx was depression would the MD want a patient to go off meds to reconfirm the dx? Or high blood pressure? Could you talk to the new MD yourself, or find one that’s more flexible? I wouldn’t reconfirm an est. medical diagnosis…just to suit the MD.

I can’t help with your problem, I just wanted to say how much your ds, sounds like mine! It’s amazing all the “little” things that have improved on the meds, that when added up spell “huge” improvement. He brought home a 90 on his first spelling test, and his penmanship has improved (has a LONG way to go, but huge improvement after 2 weeks of school)

I think that you will find that there is so much misdiagnosis of ADHD that doctors want to do their own testing. If I had a patient that came to me and it was a borderline diagnosis with the attending physician saying that “let’s try it and see if the drugs work”, I would want to run my own tests. I wouldn’t want kids on drugs that don’t need to be. Is your son diagnosed ADD without hyperactivity, since you say that he isn’t hyper? I have been running into a lot of students lately that their doctors have said that they should try meds, because if it works, then they should be on them. This isn’t true. If it were, then these meds wouldn’t be the drug of choice for college students. Students use them to lose weight and also to study for tests, since a lot of kids suffer from insomnia and it of course helps focusing for most anyone who uses them. I would recommend that you try other things instead of drugs if your son really doesn’t meet the criteria, but then of course, almost any active kid can meet the criteria to get the drugs.

that if they help but dont make them climb the wall, they probably need them.

And also the idea that they will help anyone focus. My thought is it depends on dosage.

I admit I tried both ds’s original adderall 5mg and his newer xr 20mg. Once-each.

The 5 mg tab helped me focus-I cleaned my kitchen cabinets in an incredibly short period of time.

The 20 XR-yikes! I was hyper-I was anxious, thinking everything was dangerous. Horrid experience!

With ds, I lean towards the idea that if his system wasnt needing the meds, he couldnt tolerate the 20s as well as he does.

I think there are drs who simply do not believe there is ADD without the hyperactivity factor. I worry this new guy is one-and BTW he has no idea at this point whether ds was shaky or textbook-apparently this is just ‘procedure’.

The psychologist who dx’s him acted ‘iffy’ because she wouldve liked to see some hyperactivity but the medical dr who actually wrote the prescription was 100% behind the dx-said the same thing is going on in the brain but different personalities make kids react differently. Some act out, some withdraw. Definitely made sense to me. All my kids are on the quiet passive side(I prefer to think well behaved and well parented ;)) the ones already sitting down in the dugout when the coach screams at the other 11 to stop climbing the fence and sit down. To think a child like that will react the same to a brain ‘blip’ as the kid who by personality/parenting is the first one to scale the fence-well, its ridiculous IMHO-it doesnt mean the brain blip doesnt exist.

I will call his old drs Tuesday and get their opinions-and perhaps I do need to speak to the new dr directly-maybe his staff is wrong in giving me all this material; or perhaps he will out and out tell me there is no such thing as inattentive ADD.

Marycas, my oldest son is also dx’d with ADD, inattentive type. The diagnosis was given to him when we were in ND, when we moved here to Illinois his provider reviewed all records and agreed it fit without a lenghty evaluation. He explained that some kids with ADD actually seem hypoactive. My son is very quiet, slow moving, very easy to get along with. As a matter of fact all three of my children are very quiet and well behaved. When I spoke with my oldest sons high school teachers the first thing out of all their mouths was how quiet and well behaved he was. They also stated they do note his difficulties and are amazed at how well he handles them. We have tried various medications but they always just put him to sleep. For our son we have found that what works best for him is providing the work in small chunks. His younger brother can also be inattentive but has no hyperactivity at all. His teachers actually complain that he is too slow moving and hard to get going. Both boys once they are going though are able to see a task through. I believe you can have ADD, inattentive type, and I am living with 2 right in my house.

///

school social worker gave me 2 names of area drs who would be more likely to ‘take over’ his treatment than ‘start over’ his treatment.

she wasnt negative on the first guy but said he dealt with more difficult cases of ADHD and my son was straightforward and simple in her opinion.(that explains all the questionnaires from him on violent behavior/depression/etc)

I have an appointment in a few weeks with one of her picks and the nurse assured me there would be no complete re-eval. Of course the new dr could for some reason disagree and they cant guarantee, but I understand and accept that risk

Mary,

My older boy was always a handfull. Now, I get alot of compliments on what a nice boy he is. I say, “Thank you.” I earned that.
My younger boy was born easy. When people say he is nice I just say, “He was born that way. I can’t take the credit.”

70% of the families I see, I know I just got lucky-or the right genes fell into place-whichever way you choose to look at it

Its that 30% that get on my nerves and cause me to throw in poor parenting references. Where were the parents of the kid straddling the dugout fence, the preschoolers throwing rocks at toddlers-they were right there immersed with gossip or leftover job paperwork while other parents and coaches parented their kids!!!! Arrrgh

Speed make everdody more a lert that doesn’t mean the need it or that it is a good thing. It’s ok to catch a buzz now and again but daily use of speeed is called chemical dependence. The sad thing is kids have no choice. Druggig a kid before investigating safer alternatives is chid abuse!! If that pisses people off I could care less. It seems that women’s drug of choice is speed maybe that is why so many are so enthusiastic about putting their kids on it. Then they convince their Doc they are ADD and presto they get some speed too. Support your crystal methedrine dealer he has more integrity than the drug companies that are making fortunes on this phoney ADHD epidemic.