ASPERGER'S VS. ADD/ADHD-----HOW DO YOU KNOW?

Hi. This is my first post and I'm a little lost. My son is 15 and was diagnosed at 7 with ADHD and has been on medication since. A teacher of his said she has seen some of his tendancies as being Asperger's. Can anyone give me any advice on the route to take with a "new" diagnosis? Has anyone had a CAT Scan to diagnos ADHD or Asperger's? And how to handle the resistance of doctors who think I'm crazy? Thanks for any info.

My son is 15 and was diagnosed at 7 with ADHD and has been on medication since.

If your son is 15 and was diagnoised at 7 it seems to me that he has been in the medical community for some time now. I dont know. Mabye you can ask his doctor.

I am diagnosed with both Asperger's and ADHD hyperactive/impulsive type... he may have both

Hey,

There IS currently research occuring on the relationships between brain activity and mental illnesses such as those on the Autism Spectrum disorder (Which includes Aspergers'). However, this research is not approved by any medical authority as far as I know. I amen't entirely sure but the most common way of diagnosing is by a psychiatrist.


I am an Aspie (a person with Asperger's) and I looked up the symptoms of ADHD a few months ago. To my amazement I found out that I also have most of the symptoms of it. During my time here and though reading books I have also heard of and witnessed people with links between Asperger's and ADHD.


Regarding your son, I think you should view his state as having Asperger's with ADHD as a secondary symptom of Asperger's and not the other way around. Thus, you should aim to have him treated as an Aspie, not an ADHDer.


Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) works well but it can be expensive. I'm not entirely sure how the medical sysmtem works well wherever you are. Here, in Ireland, I had to go through a psychirist first to get the CBT therapist.


I hope this information is useful to you my friend.


Take care,
Kevin.

According to the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, AD/HD should not be diagnosed if features of hyperactivity and inattention are occurring during the course of a pervasive developmental disorder. In other words, you can be one or the other, but not both.

riderwaite wrote:According to the current edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, AD/HD should not be diagnosed if features of hyperactivity and inattention are occurring during the course of a pervasive developmental disorder. In other words, you can be one or the other, but not both.

In theory, yes. In practice however that is very much not the case as there are MANY people with both diagnoses and ADHD and autism are closely linked and occur in clusters (alongside things like Dyslexia, Bipolar disorder, OCD and Tourette's), e.g. many people have several of these and many have relatives with either an ASD or one of the other neurological differences.

I think that this happens is only an indication of how uninformed diagnosticians are as to the actual criteria that are supposed to be used in diagnostic work. Anyone who receives diagnoses of both AD/HD and a pervasive developmental disorder needs to take a look at the competencies of their diagnostician - it is one condition that is expressly disallowed as a co-existing condition. The other conditions you mention can and sometimes do co-exist with pervasive developmental disorders. So do some others.

This is not a matter of interpretation, it's clearly stated - and I didn't make the rules, I'm just reporting on them.

riderwaite wrote:This is not a matter of interpretation, it's clearly stated - and I didn't make the rules, I'm just reporting on them.

The ICD-10 doesn't say this though, so there is no reason to accuse anyone of lacking knowledge in their field.

When the problems of one disorder are addressed (for example with AS the environment is adapted to benefit the person's needs and sensitivities, sensory issues are addressed etc.) and the ADHD symptoms still prevail then there is nothing to say that the PDD is actually causing the symptoms.

The fact is that there are many people with AS or other PDDs who do NOT have any ADHD-type problems at all (some people with AS are even able to focus and concentrate above average, in fact it is often a part of why interests can be so intense and prevail for so long), so AS can't reallly be 'blamed' for ADHD type symptoms in everyone who has AS and ADHD type problems.

Because if AS by default caused these symptoms then the vast majority (if not everybody) of people with AS would by default have the symptoms - but clearly, they do not!

Indeed, there are many Aspies with ADHD problems who react really badly to ADHD medication (so yes in those cases one can assume another cause other than ADHD), but in those who do react well there is nothing to say they cannot have both.

The same goes for social problems etc. in someone with ADHD - being inattentive or hyper is bound to affect your social skills and understanding (including language processing), but a skilled diagnostician is able to tell the difference between social problems that stem from impulsivity or from lack of attention, and social problems that originate "deeper down" along the neurological chain.

It is the narrow-minded diagnostician who is too lazy to do a proper assessment and blames every problem a child or adult experiences on whatever the diagnostician specialises in, who is lacking in expertise, not the other way around - although of course as always there are exceptions!

Seriously though I would MUCH rather visit someone who actually understands their specialist area of research (and thus knows for a fact that both can occur in the same person) than an "expert" who only diagnoses based on a checklist and who refuses to accept what they see in front of them just because the DSM iV says it can't exist. (Just remember the DSM changes with every revision, because we find out more about these matters all the time - if the DSM actually contained all there is to know about disorders then we would be dealing with *just* the DSM not DSM IV )

Well I am basically a hyperactive adult who needed insurance to cover a white noise machine for my sensory issues and Asperger's is the only 'label' that I could have it covered (those machines are expensive)... I have AD/HD and so I guess I don't really want to argue with nut cases over my Asperger-like qualities which are more or less PTSD induced. I find it annoying how people come on here thinking their $#%^ doesn't stink arguing over technicalities in a DSM-IV which is highly inaccurate to begin with.

The ICD-10 states that mixed disorders involving hyperkinetic disorders are common, and that developmental disorders should take precedence in diagnosis when they are present.

A double diagnosis involving a hyperkinetic disorder should be made only when symptoms that are not part of another disorder clearly indicate the separate presence of a hyperkinetic disorder. Restlessness due to anxiety or depression are the examples used in the ICD-10. It's the 'clearly indicate' part that is important.

This reflects the difficulty involved in saying that AD/HD co-exists with an autistic disorder - it may well be something else entirely - (depression or anxiety??? with autism???? NO WAY!) and the cautions involving the double diagnosis are justified.

I'm not intending to be argumentative, though it appears to me that others think so. As I posted, I'm just reporting - I didn't come up with this stuff. But I maintain that anyone who picks up a dual diagnosis of AD/HD and any disorder on the spectrum needs to take another look at it.

I'm skeptical about the skills of many practicing diagnosticians, and I'm not apologetic about that.