Daughter ADHD? Pursue neuropsych?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That does sound like a possible inattentive ADHD profile. You should get her evaluated.

I am the above poster, and I would NOT pursue anxiety treatment any further until the presence of ADHD has been confirmed or infirmed.

Two reasons:

1. Often ADHD is the prime factor behind the anxiety.

2. Medications for anxiety as a group tend to have more serious side-effects and work less well than the stimulant class of meds for ADHD. If you treat the ADHD, you might not have to medicate for anxiety.

This is not true. Many psychiatrists will want your mood to be stabilized before moving you on to ADHD medications as well.

[Anonymous]

But...what if it's ADD/ADHD and not anxiety? Without a neuropsych, it's hard to determine if what the OP's daughter has is actually anxiety.

Dr. Daniel Pine at NIH indeed said that the anxiety meds are more serious than the ADD/ADHD meds...look up his research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That does sound like a possible inattentive ADHD profile. You should get her evaluated.

I am the above poster, and I would NOT pursue anxiety treatment any further until the presence of ADHD has been confirmed or infirmed.

Two reasons:

1. Often ADHD is the prime factor behind the anxiety.

2. Medications for anxiety as a group tend to have more serious side-effects and work less well than the stimulant class of meds for ADHD. If you treat the ADHD, you might not have to medicate for anxiety.

This is not true. Many psychiatrists will want your mood to be stabilized before moving you on to ADHD medications as well.

PP you responded to - that is wrong and dangerous. While there are cases where anxiety needs to be treated before addressing other co-morbid disorders, when it is debilitating, for example, most often, anxiety, like depression, are the consequences of that other disorder. It is different when there is *only* anxiety or *only* depression present.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm trying to figure out whether to pursue a neuropsych evaluation for my high school aged daughter.

I'm wondering if there's some inattentive ADHD going on. She's a smart girl who gets mostly As at the end of the marking period. But she finds school very stressful. It takes her a long time to get her homework done (and there really doesnt seem to be that much of it). She does well in most of her classes but struggles with the teacher that mostly lectures to the class where she has to take notes (there doesn't seem to be a lot of that going on in her other classes).
We do have tears sometimes over work that seems insurmountable but really aren't. And even though she's pretty smart, it takes her longer to pick up concepts.

She's been diagnosed with anxiety and has trouble making friends (although she has a small-but not very healthy friend group). She's in therapy for these issues, but I also wonder if there's something else going on?

sounds like garden variety anxiety to me. not diminishing it, however I don't see ADHD. That said, I do think that getting an evaluation could be valuable as it may help her get accommodations in college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That does sound like a possible inattentive ADHD profile. You should get her evaluated.

I am the above poster, and I would NOT pursue anxiety treatment any further until the presence of ADHD has been confirmed or infirmed.

Two reasons:

1. Often ADHD is the prime factor behind the anxiety.

2. Medications for anxiety as a group tend to have more serious side-effects and work less well than the stimulant class of meds for ADHD. If you treat the ADHD, you might not have to medicate for anxiety.

This is not true. Many psychiatrists will want your mood to be stabilized before moving you on to ADHD medications as well.

PP you responded to - that is wrong and dangerous. While there are cases where anxiety needs to be treated before addressing other co-morbid disorders, when it is debilitating, for example, most often, anxiety, like depression, are the consequences of that other disorder. It is different when there is *only* anxiety or *only* depression present.

Nope. I and my child have both. Two different psychiatrists prescribe medication this way--treat the anxiety first then the ADHD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But...what if it's ADD/ADHD and not anxiety? Without a neuropsych, it's hard to determine if what the OP's daughter has is actually anxiety.

Dr. Daniel Pine at NIH indeed said that the anxiety meds are more serious than the ADD/ADHD meds...look up his research.

I know who Dr. Pine is. Where in his research does it say this?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Pine%20DS%5BAuthor%5D&cauthor=true&cauthor_uid=10946757

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That does sound like a possible inattentive ADHD profile. You should get her evaluated.

I am the above poster, and I would NOT pursue anxiety treatment any further until the presence of ADHD has been confirmed or infirmed.

Two reasons:

1. Often ADHD is the prime factor behind the anxiety.

2. Medications for anxiety as a group tend to have more serious side-effects and work less well than the stimulant class of meds for ADHD. If you treat the ADHD, you might not have to medicate for anxiety.

This is not true. Many psychiatrists will want your mood to be stabilized before moving you on to ADHD medications as well.

PP you responded to - that is wrong and dangerous. While there are cases where anxiety needs to be treated before addressing other co-morbid disorders, when it is debilitating, for example, most often, anxiety, like depression, are the consequences of that other disorder. It is different when there is *only* anxiety or *only* depression present.

Nope. I and my child have both. Two different psychiatrists prescribe medication this way--treat the anxiety first then the ADHD.

Perhaps they have determined that your ADHD is milder than your anxiety, and that the two are not inter-related. But you and your child are in the minority, and a good psychiatrist's first reflex will be to treat the ADHD first.