ADHD diagnosis

[lilypie13]

I'm not sure if this is the correct section to post so please let me know if there is somewhere better.

My dss was diagnosed with ADHD two weeks ago by the CAHMS dept of our local
Hospital , at the appt we were told that they had reached a decision and that a detailed report would be in the post , they gave us an information pack and we made another appt for tomorrow where they plan to tell dss about it.

We have not had the report yet and we are worried about telling him of a firm diagnosis ( he knows nothing of this ) incase we get a second opinion and it's different.

We don't 100% agree with the diagnosis but they are the experts that why we are considering a second opinion based on what the report shows as at the meeting they had did not give us any firm reasons/observations of how they have come up his. They have met dss at hospital for one hour and attended school twice for 1.5 hour observations.

We are in close contact with the school who are also quite shocked about diagnosis.

Dss dm was the one who persued a referral to CAHMS through hv initially and as he spends alot of time with her at home I would say her observations are credible but it's just hard when we don't observe what she says she does.

Does anyone have anything to offer - should we tell him tomorrow or should we follow our gut and wait until we are able to read full report ?

How old is he?

Fwiw my DS1 was diagnosed with ADHD in February. It had not occurred to me that he had it. Now I have read about it some more I can see he probably does. TBH it hasn't made much difference yet in terms of school.

I'd wait to see full report & maybe 2nd diagnosis if you need that. Make a list of questions, too. ADHD may not be the condition you think it is, too.

School have been great face us all sorts of information and there are parts that I could say yes I think that fits with ADHD just would rather see in black and white what's been done. We submitted a Connors scale but it was completely different to his dm one, he is 8

Are you and the dm together? It sounds like you are disagreeing with what she is saying too?

Be wary. My ds was diagnosed with ADHD in 2007 and I refused the diagnosis. I just felt he had more issues than the report had said and forced Cahms to assess further. After another year we got a diagnosis of autism and oppositional defiant disorder. It was these diagnosis that got ds the help and statement he needed for his schooling. He would have got nothing with dx of ADHD alone. You can get Cahms to further assess using ados and adi-r tests if you feel this is more than ADHD.

It's my dss, dh and his dm are divorced.

I do disagree with some of what she has claimed like him running about taking his clothes off and being inappropriate and him running out in front of cars things like that but only because he has never in the three year I've known him done they with us but it could have happened so I'm trying to reserve judgement.

I just want the best for him I don't see the hyperactivity part but definitely the attention deficit part as he can't remember instructions that he will just have been told

It's so confusing want to do the right thing

I thought behaviours had to be exhibited in more than one location in order for a diagnosis to be made? What is the school saying?

Cece that's what we thought too that's why we are keen to see full report.

We have now had several meetings with head teacher , class teacher and the schools support worker who working with the ADHD autistic children and they tell us that he can be badly behaved and not listen but so can alot of other children and they certainly wouldn't have said ADHD.