ADD/ADHD: Treatment Without Identification

A diagnosis of ADD/ADHD is a process that requires a significant amount of observation and, more importantly, a great deal of psychological and medical testing. However, the majority of individuals who have been diagnosed with ADD/ADHD were diagnosed on the reporting of symptoms alone; either self-reporting, or, in the case of a child, reporting from parents, teachers, and caregivers. Many people are being medicated solely on the rushed diagnosis of a family physician who really doesn’t have the time to discuss the condition in-depth and who likely fails to recommend the individual for further testing; testing that might rule out other common disorders, or that might even point to nothing more than undesirable behavior.

This means that people are being diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD when they do not, and others are not receiving an ADD/ADHD diagnosis in cases when they really should. This over/under-diagnosis is problematic for the medical community, the schools and parents seeking to manage behavioral problems in children, and, most of all, the people who are being misdiagnosed.

Many common disorders can mimic the symptoms of ADD/ADHD resulting in an incorrect diagnosis if adequate care is not taken to compare the symptoms of each individual carefully with every available condition rubric. The symptoms of ADD/ADHD are so obtuse that they can easily be attributed to depression, anxiety, specific learning disabilities, early onset bipolar disorder, Tourette’s Syndrome, food allergies, head injuries, fetal alcohol syndrome, dental problems (such as abscessed root canals or mercury toxicity from fillings), family dynamics issues, grief or trauma, and even simple poor parenting!

The likelihood that ADD/ADHD will be diagnosed correctly is extremely low.

The fact that symptoms of many conditions and disorders are so often mistaken for ADD/ADHD warrants a closer look at the way that diagnosis takes place.

Please Login or Register to read the rest of this content.