Aa
Is this up to each individual Doctor?
Does a Psychiatrist have the right to dose each of their patients the way they see fit? Such as, a patient that has ADHD, is there a certain guideline they must follow on how a stimulant or non-stimulant should be dosed? Or is it up to that individual Psychiatrist to figure out which medicine dose fits best for each individual patient?
Best Answer
Of course it is up to the psychiatrist. No two people are alike, and no two people react the same way to the same Rx. Have you considered a tutor or reading clinic to help with the ADHD? My son had some issues in elementary school, and I put him into a special reading clinic where the ratio was one teacher to two students. He was able to learn how to concentrate and work better without the distraction of a full classroom, where teachers do not have the time to dedicate to one student. Ask about other therapies than medication that might be available for your child. Sylvan Learning Centers are available in most major cities, and there may be other independent reading tutors experienced with ADHD and similar problems. Has your child been tested by a clinical psychologist, or did the MD diagnose the problem and just prescribe the Rx? Testing can give you a good overall picture of his problem - some doctors are quick to put that label on kids, when in reality it may be something else with a medical or neurological basis. Not intending to frighten you, but explore ALL the possibilities.
After my Daughter and my last doctor visit, he decided it's time for her and I to be evaluated. So we're looking for a doctor through our insurance company as of now. I'm also looking into IEP or 504 plan for my daughter and school.
Thanks for all the help and suggetions(:
Thanks for all the help and suggetions(:
I would suggest that you and your daughter also see a clinical psychiatrist to rule out Bi-Polar Disorder. You commented that your doctor had given your daughter a medication to help "bring her down" from the stimulant. That didn't really sound right to me. And yes, younger children can have it. It doesn't always start in the teen years.
My daughter went through the same thing. She would sleep 18 hours straight and missed so much school in 10th grade she was held back- she was diagnosed with ADHD in first grade. Since that time her diagnosis has been changed to Bi-Polar Disorder as well as ADD- Although an attention deficit is also a symptom of Bi-Polar.
Does any relative experience the same problems? It can be hereditary. I have it, my brother has it, my uncle has it and her biological father also has it. I also have 2 older daughters who have it.
Unfortunately, there is still such an unwarranted stigma about any type of mental illness, even though it is a medical issue just like any other type of hormonal imbalance. There is nothing to be "ashamed" of if you or anyone else is diagnosed with this type of illness.
I also bring this up because at the age of 39 I saw my doctor about having ADD/ADHD symptoms- I matched all of the symptoms. He looked at me and said,"That's because you are Bi-Polar, honey" (I'd known him for a long while, so the term of endearment was comforting to me). He recommended a psychiatrist, and since being on medications my life has improved dramatically. It's not perfect, but it sure is better than it was!
I wish the best for you and your daughter, and I hope you can get to the bottome of what is causing the issues.
Take care of yourself, and each other.
My daughter went through the same thing. She would sleep 18 hours straight and missed so much school in 10th grade she was held back- she was diagnosed with ADHD in first grade. Since that time her diagnosis has been changed to Bi-Polar Disorder as well as ADD- Although an attention deficit is also a symptom of Bi-Polar.
Does any relative experience the same problems? It can be hereditary. I have it, my brother has it, my uncle has it and her biological father also has it. I also have 2 older daughters who have it.
Unfortunately, there is still such an unwarranted stigma about any type of mental illness, even though it is a medical issue just like any other type of hormonal imbalance. There is nothing to be "ashamed" of if you or anyone else is diagnosed with this type of illness.
I also bring this up because at the age of 39 I saw my doctor about having ADD/ADHD symptoms- I matched all of the symptoms. He looked at me and said,"That's because you are Bi-Polar, honey" (I'd known him for a long while, so the term of endearment was comforting to me). He recommended a psychiatrist, and since being on medications my life has improved dramatically. It's not perfect, but it sure is better than it was!
I wish the best for you and your daughter, and I hope you can get to the bottome of what is causing the issues.
Take care of yourself, and each other.
Hi,
I appreciate your advice(: Heres a little bit of my background, I was first diagnosed by my family PCP with generalized anxiety and panic disorder, around 8 yrs ago. I was put on 1 mg a day xanax ER. That wasn't cutting it, so I went back, he changed it to 1mg Xanax RR 2x/day. The RR works best for my anxiety and especially for my panick attacks. Not too long after, my dose was raised higher. I was up to 1 mg Xanax 4x/day. After maybe 2 yrs, on this dose, I could no longer go to my family doctor (who I've gone to my entire life), due to change in insurance. He recommended the doctor I'm now seeing, because he's both a family physician/Psychiatrist. He dicided to try 2mg Xanax 2x/day, and it helped me so much. Now I'm prescribed 2mg 3x/day (I took 3 pills/day for about a year). Since I was inicially there for my anxiety/panic, I was only telling him about that. I guess I was ashamed and in denial about having depression. I suffered with this since my Sister passed in 2000.
I finally realized that if I wasn't completely honest with him, I couldn't get the help that I was in need of. I talked to him about my depression and tried several antidepressants. I think it was around 6-7 different meds that I tried, before I found Lexapro. It was like night and day, as well as no bothersome side effects like all the others gave me. It helped me with my anxiety as well as depression. The combination of these two meds seemed to work great. Only I was still not doing very much in my life, such as going out, talking to my friends, being active, my concentration was horrible, I could nvr seem to stay focused or organized. I was so unhappy for so long, that I thought this was just my own norm. I was highly emotional and over the top with any problem that came my way.
About 8-9 mths ago I decided to take my daughter to my doctor. She has been struggling with school, homework, concentration, very irritable, tantrums at the age of 7 1/2 and missing too many days of school, because she hated it and would purposely miss her bus in the morning since she knew at that time I didn't have a car to drive her there. Basically since Kindergarden I knew there was something not quite right. I nvr saw a little girl hate school as much as she did. I also realized that by this year (3rd grade), she was so behind in reading/writing that her level was considered a 1st grade reading level. My daughter also has severe sleep disorder/insomnia. This was breaking my heart to force her to get up and go to school. I knew she hated it because she had such a hard time learning and reading, along with an average of 3-4 hours of interrupted sleep each night.
Basically I started researching adhd, she has almost every single symptom and requirement on each list that qualifies her to be adhd. So our doctor started her on Adderall 5 mg once a day for a week, then twice a day after that week (if the 5 mg per day wasn't enough. She was also put on 0.1 mg of Catapres for both sleep and to help come down from Adderall. Both meds seemed to help her focus and made her really pleasant to be around too(: The Catapres helped her fall asleep and stay asleep for a few weeks, but we sooned had to up it to 2 pills, then 3 and after three I decided the amount didn't matter, it just wasn't helping her stay asleep. It also gave her severe nightmares, sleep walking, talking in her sleep and also somewhat violent when she would wake up at 1-3 am each night. I lowered her back down to 1 1/2 pills and now were in the middle of weaning her off. Anyway, back to my point. I took her Adderall after doing some research and realizing that I was also adhd. I went back to the doctor, and told him about this. He couldn't believe it, I had basically diagnosed and treated myself!! I thought he would be mad, but he wasn't, he was happy that I figured out my own problem(: So that visit I was put on 10 mg Adderall IR twice a day. I upped it to two 20 mg and one 10 mg a day, and finally I'm now at three 20 mg per day. I've been at this dose now for at least 6 months or more. So it's not taking full effects anymore. That was my main reason I went back two weeks early yesterday, as well as this question I posted too. We talked about getting on 30 mg XR twice a day, or other meds. But he said bed like me to stay at 60 mg right now since I would only have to keep upping my dose sooner and sooner. I decided to wait on changing over to XR Adderall, only because of my fear that it won't work as well or even less than what I'm on now. Before I left his office, I asked to speak with him again (I was his last appt for the day). I told him that I did a lot of research and found out that I was most likey miss diagnosed in the beginning. I believe that I only have anxiety and most of my depression stemming from adhd. These all usually go hand in hand. I just went to my doctors yesterday evening. I talked to him about my meds and what we could do to switch them around. He recommended that we both see a specialist. So, now I'm waiting on another appointment with a behavioral specialist, for both my daughter & I.
I'm praying that this will be our final answers(:
I appreciate your advice(: Heres a little bit of my background, I was first diagnosed by my family PCP with generalized anxiety and panic disorder, around 8 yrs ago. I was put on 1 mg a day xanax ER. That wasn't cutting it, so I went back, he changed it to 1mg Xanax RR 2x/day. The RR works best for my anxiety and especially for my panick attacks. Not too long after, my dose was raised higher. I was up to 1 mg Xanax 4x/day. After maybe 2 yrs, on this dose, I could no longer go to my family doctor (who I've gone to my entire life), due to change in insurance. He recommended the doctor I'm now seeing, because he's both a family physician/Psychiatrist. He dicided to try 2mg Xanax 2x/day, and it helped me so much. Now I'm prescribed 2mg 3x/day (I took 3 pills/day for about a year). Since I was inicially there for my anxiety/panic, I was only telling him about that. I guess I was ashamed and in denial about having depression. I suffered with this since my Sister passed in 2000.
I finally realized that if I wasn't completely honest with him, I couldn't get the help that I was in need of. I talked to him about my depression and tried several antidepressants. I think it was around 6-7 different meds that I tried, before I found Lexapro. It was like night and day, as well as no bothersome side effects like all the others gave me. It helped me with my anxiety as well as depression. The combination of these two meds seemed to work great. Only I was still not doing very much in my life, such as going out, talking to my friends, being active, my concentration was horrible, I could nvr seem to stay focused or organized. I was so unhappy for so long, that I thought this was just my own norm. I was highly emotional and over the top with any problem that came my way.
About 8-9 mths ago I decided to take my daughter to my doctor. She has been struggling with school, homework, concentration, very irritable, tantrums at the age of 7 1/2 and missing too many days of school, because she hated it and would purposely miss her bus in the morning since she knew at that time I didn't have a car to drive her there. Basically since Kindergarden I knew there was something not quite right. I nvr saw a little girl hate school as much as she did. I also realized that by this year (3rd grade), she was so behind in reading/writing that her level was considered a 1st grade reading level. My daughter also has severe sleep disorder/insomnia. This was breaking my heart to force her to get up and go to school. I knew she hated it because she had such a hard time learning and reading, along with an average of 3-4 hours of interrupted sleep each night.
Basically I started researching adhd, she has almost every single symptom and requirement on each list that qualifies her to be adhd. So our doctor started her on Adderall 5 mg once a day for a week, then twice a day after that week (if the 5 mg per day wasn't enough. She was also put on 0.1 mg of Catapres for both sleep and to help come down from Adderall. Both meds seemed to help her focus and made her really pleasant to be around too(: The Catapres helped her fall asleep and stay asleep for a few weeks, but we sooned had to up it to 2 pills, then 3 and after three I decided the amount didn't matter, it just wasn't helping her stay asleep. It also gave her severe nightmares, sleep walking, talking in her sleep and also somewhat violent when she would wake up at 1-3 am each night. I lowered her back down to 1 1/2 pills and now were in the middle of weaning her off. Anyway, back to my point. I took her Adderall after doing some research and realizing that I was also adhd. I went back to the doctor, and told him about this. He couldn't believe it, I had basically diagnosed and treated myself!! I thought he would be mad, but he wasn't, he was happy that I figured out my own problem(: So that visit I was put on 10 mg Adderall IR twice a day. I upped it to two 20 mg and one 10 mg a day, and finally I'm now at three 20 mg per day. I've been at this dose now for at least 6 months or more. So it's not taking full effects anymore. That was my main reason I went back two weeks early yesterday, as well as this question I posted too. We talked about getting on 30 mg XR twice a day, or other meds. But he said bed like me to stay at 60 mg right now since I would only have to keep upping my dose sooner and sooner. I decided to wait on changing over to XR Adderall, only because of my fear that it won't work as well or even less than what I'm on now. Before I left his office, I asked to speak with him again (I was his last appt for the day). I told him that I did a lot of research and found out that I was most likey miss diagnosed in the beginning. I believe that I only have anxiety and most of my depression stemming from adhd. These all usually go hand in hand. I just went to my doctors yesterday evening. I talked to him about my meds and what we could do to switch them around. He recommended that we both see a specialist. So, now I'm waiting on another appointment with a behavioral specialist, for both my daughter & I.
I'm praying that this will be our final answers(:
There is really no set guide lines for how doctors have to treat their patients. Since everyone is different there is no way that they can. What might work for me might not work for you.
It would endanger their patients. I know it can be frustrating, but they have to take into account what the person's symptoms are and then take into account how the person reacts to other medicines.
It would endanger their patients. I know it can be frustrating, but they have to take into account what the person's symptoms are and then take into account how the person reacts to other medicines.
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