Hi everyone,

I think I may have ADD. My behavior, research, etc has led me to believe that I have this condition. I also took Dr. Amen's ADD Checklist test at http://www.addresources.org/article_checklist_amen.php. It was the most in-depth test I've ever taken and I've taken quite a few ADD quizzes online. The test indicated that "more than 20 items with a score of three or more indicates a strong tendency toward ADHD". Well, I had 37 items.

My question is...how do I bring this information up to my doctor? I see a psychologist for bipolar and a psychiatrist every few months for medication. I'm going to see the latter on February 6th. I want to show her this test I took and tell her about the symptoms I have. Will this be enough? :confused: Is there anything else I should say or do? I just feel like most docs don't appreciate their patients' attempts at self-diagnoses, but what happens when you have done alot of research on an issue, recognize the symptoms as the same ones you are experiencing, and you feel like your reading about yourself when it talks about ADD?! :confused: I realized I've suffered with this for a long time and a resolution is very much needed!!

Thanks for any help u can give,
Kaycee

Try with the psychiatrist if that's who you're seeing soonest. Tell her about the symptoms that are most bothersome and impairing for you and then tell her that you took this test and give that to her for the rest. It's probably easier to do that than try to remember all the different things you have problems with or that are consistent. If you're anything like me, you'll forget at least half of them. I don't think it'd be a problem to say "this seems consistent w/ ADD to me, what do you think? " but you know her better than we do. :) If she needs anything else she'll ask.
Good luck!

Although I personally don't see any thing wrong with Amen's ADD testing many doctor's feel other wise because Amen's work has not been able to be duplicated by independent studies....a psychologist/ science point of view I picked up from a few of the members around here.

Here are some hyperlinks to some questioners put out by Doctor's that are more "main stream" therefore increase chances of successfully opening productive dialog.


Dr Edward Hallowell's Suggested Diagnostic Criteria for AD/HD in Adults

http://www.drhallowell.com/resources/articles/diagnostic_adults.html


From Adult ADD site I am not sure who WHO (oh.... World Health Organization) I have seen this same six questionaire on other sites also.

http://www.adultadd.com/2_2_recognizing/screener.jsp

Stanzen posted the (DSM-IV-TR) diagnostic criteria----this DSMV thing is like psychologist “Bible”...definitely worth a read.

http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=23276

Hope this helps.