[CraigSca]

Just an update for everyone...

We took our son to the local children's hospital and had him diagnosed by their team of psychiatrists. Surprisingly, their diagnosis was based on only a 2-hour session with us, a myriad of questionnaires given to us and one given to his teacher. After two weeks, we were invited back so they could tell us what they thought. We were completely ready for an Asperger's Syndrome spectrum dx, but not the one they gave us. After we exchanged pleasantries, we sat down and they explained to us that, although they did see some Asperger's tendencies, their diagnosis was Child-onset Conduct Disorder. Of course, I had never heard of such a thing, so my original question was - "what does that mean?" The psychiatrist said (and I quote), "These children don't grow up to be doctors or lawyers, they grow up to be incarcerated." They then recommended therapy and anti-psychotic drugs. We were absolutely incredulous. Sure, we know our son is odd sometimes and has some aggressive tendencies, but they seem more borne out of frustration rather than an innate need to hurt things or people (children with conduct disorder tend to hurt animals and then eventually people, do poor in school, etc). We asked them...how can something like this happen - is it something they're born with? The psychiatrist said 99% of the time children with conduct disorder are the victims of severe abuse, neglect, drug abuse, etc. Of course, our next question is - "well then, how can you explain this diagnosis - you KNOW we're not like that?!" (they had also commented that children that have conduct disorder are not voluntarily brought for psychiatric eval, they're usually brought by the courts or child services) - they said they were just as confused why this would occur.

After doing more research, we decided this diagnosis did not fit our child at all. After presenting more evidence to the psychiatrists, they agreed to "bring it down a level" to PDD (I apologize, the non-acronym version of this escapes me now). However, we were thoroughly disgusted - we felt that they glossed over a number of issues we presented to them and pigeon-holed him into a diagnosis that didn't fit him or our family structure at all. After throwing our lives topsy-turvy for two weeks, we decided to keep an appointment with a respected neurologist for a second opinion.

This week we met with the neurologist - it was a 2 hour appointment, again filled with lots of questions (and my incredible wife supplied them with an 8-page history of our boy - from infancy to today, as well as our recent GLOWING parent-teacher conference). Interestingly, the neurologist refused to diagnose him with anything at this point (but supplied the standard ADHD for insurance reasons). He said that he couldn't possibly diagnose after barely getting to know him, but there were some issues that he saw that he'd like to work on - sensory issues as well as a preponderance to deal with frustration without the ability to pause and think (I'm paraphrasing here) before reacting. They're recommending very low dosage of a medication that works with the dopamines in the brain and should help him think before reacting. My wife and I have never been proponents of meds for kids (and the prescription panacea society we live in), however...we know our child has issues, but the neurologist seems to think these are not chronic. If this low dosage med can help him with his self-esteem, make better decisions, and finally....finally have a friend, then I am reluctantly giving in.

I'll let you know how we progress...