ADHD vs Neurolgical Disorder

[Joanna]

I homeschool my son so I have no teacher input on this.  Also he is adopted so I have no family history persae.  My son shows all the signs of ADHD(and symptoms)and he is 8 years old.  I took him to a Psy.D who said he is not ADHD based on his tests. His I.Q. is 147 and he is in the top 99% in all areas tested.  Still he presents as ADHD to me.  Then the other day I read an article in a magazine at the doctors office about kids being misdiagnosed with ADHD when in fact they have a neurological disorder called something like Hypersensitivity.  It described my son to a T.  Have you ever heard of this syndrom (syndrome) and if so can you direct me to where I might get more info on this?
Thanks so much in advance for your help.

[Kevin Kennedy, Ph.D.]

Dear Joanna,

There really is no test, per se, for ADHD. Rather, it is a descriptive diagnosis based on the presence of a particular array of eighteen symptoms. If a sufficient number of symptoms are present, before a definitive diagnosis of ADHD can be concluded, it's necessary to determine if there is any other reasonable explanation for the symptoms other than ADHD. In other words, other conditions need to be rules out.

Some non-verbal learning disabilites can look very much like ADHD, particularly if the disability impairs a person's ability to be organized. In addition, some sensory integration problems can sometimes be misdiagnosed as ADHD.

One thing to keep in mind is whether the symptoms tend to impair the child's ability to master the important areas in his life. Many children display symptoms which might warrant the diagnosis of ADHD, but the symptoms don't really interfere with their functioning. Impairment is necessary to meet the criteria for a diagnosis of ADHD.

[sue]

I'm not sure what path you may thinking of. However, I have a very similar situation. My adopted son is very bright but sometimes shows the ADD symptoms. Four different evaluations yielded four different opinions. We were more successful when he was put in an advanced school. Also, we decided to start nurturing some of his talents instead of trying to make him more average. (It was less stressful on us).

Have you ever heard of the Thomas Edison syndrome? There are many books written about this subject. Do a search and you'll find many books on this subject. Good luck!

[my 12 year old son was diagnosed with ad]

my 12 yr.old son was diagnosed with add/adhd when he was 6 yrs.old when diagnosed with it,he has been on ritalin  until the beginning of this school year,he wanted to see if he could do it,his grades went from an A/B student to 3 f's and d's, an a in art,i put him back on ritalin,20 time release a.m. 20 time release p.m., 5 in the evening when he was home,because of the tempertantrums,and things,in school off the med,he was getting detention for no homework,for fighting,now i have him on addrelin  20 release in a.m. 20 release p.m. when he gets home from school,10mg prozac in the a.m.,the prozac does nothing,the doctor sais that it takes a month in his system.it has been 2 weeks.some different people have told me that i should see about ssi for him,he was seeing a psychologist,but i am looking for a psychiatrist.do you know anything about children getting ssi money for the add/adhd and depression?