Has anyone been to a Neuropsychiatrist? (NOT a neuropsychologist)

[Anonymous]

My DS has epilepsy and psychiatric/behavioral diagnoses. He’s on anti seizure meds and behavioral meds, but our neurologist and our psychiatrist don’t coordinate.

It can be hard to unwind what is seizure related vs. what is a side effect from the meds vs. what is anxiety/ADHD/depression.

I wonder if a neuropsychiatrist can help. There’s one at Kennedy Krieger and a few others around the country.

Has anyone tried this? Did it help at all?

[Anonymous]

Not personally. But I worked as a social worker in a TBI program and we used a neuropsychiatrist to help address medication issues for patients with behavioral issues. It was really helpful to our patients and our staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not personally. But I worked as a social worker in a TBI program and we used a neuropsychiatrist to help address medication issues for patients with behavioral issues. It was really helpful to our patients and our staff.

Op here. Thank you!! This is helpful to hear! It seems like it could help. I just feel a little reluctant as we’ve been to so many doctors and nothing has really helped. It’s hard to know what’s even worth trying at this point.

[Anonymous]

My son has epilepsy, combined with asd, adhd and anxiety. He is seen annually by a psychologist at the division of pediatric neurology from children hospital for neuropsychological evaluation and they review the result with us. That reports have all tons of intellectual/behavial evaluation plus inputs from parents and teachers. He is then also followed up by a neurologist from the same department related to that neurospychologocal evaluation report to make sure that his brain and cognition is still functioning properly with no regress and treatment follow up if needed. Occassionally, I schedule a developmental pediatrican follow up if I have any new raised concerns. They want to do overnight EEG on him every few years for an update. I am told that developmental pediatrician or a psychologist can prescribe adhd medication if needed. We have heen doing this way for the last 4 years since epilepsy is diagnosed, and so far they conclude that he does not need to be medicated for now on both adhd and epilepsy. They are monitoring him closely.

For now, every year he has to see them for at least 3 appointments (evaluation appointment, psychologist follow up appointment, and then neurologist follow up appointment). If adhd or epilepsy medication is required, I assume that more appointments are needed for trial and error to evaluate the pros and cons. Not sure if my experience is helpful or not, just share what we have been doing for the past few years.

[Anonymous]

Two adults in my life have had treatment-resistant behavioral health challenges while also treating physical diagnoses that can have behavioral manifestations. Both benefitted a lot from working with neuropsychiatrists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has epilepsy, combined with asd, adhd and anxiety. He is seen annually by a psychologist at the division of pediatric neurology from children hospital for neuropsychological evaluation and they review the result with us. That reports have all tons of intellectual/behavial evaluation plus inputs from parents and teachers. He is then also followed up by a neurologist from the same department related to that neurospychologocal evaluation report to make sure that his brain and cognition is still functioning properly with no regress and treatment follow up if needed. Occassionally, I schedule a developmental pediatrican follow up if I have any new raised concerns. They want to do overnight EEG on him every few years for an update. I am told that developmental pediatrician or a psychologist can prescribe adhd medication if needed. We have heen doing this way for the last 4 years since epilepsy is diagnosed, and so far they conclude that he does not need to be medicated for now on both adhd and epilepsy. They are monitoring him closely.

For now, every year he has to see them for at least 3 appointments (evaluation appointment, psychologist follow up appointment, and then neurologist follow up appointment). If adhd or epilepsy medication is required, I assume that more appointments are needed for trial and error to evaluate the pros and cons. Not sure if my experience is helpful or not, just share what we have been doing for the past few years.

OP here. Thank you. It sounds like you have assembled an outstanding team to support your DS! We have seen several neuropsychologists and developmental pediatricians but they don't really collaborate with neurology the way it sounds like your team is more integrated. And everyone basically just completely defers to neurology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two adults in my life have had treatment-resistant behavioral health challenges while also treating physical diagnoses that can have behavioral manifestations. Both benefitted a lot from working with neuropsychiatrists.

OP here. Thank you. This is helpful to know. It's such a small field that I haven't met anyone who has seen one so it's helpful to hear that you have personally seen it be beneficial.