Post by andy12345 on Aug 23, 2011 13:38:48 GMT
For those who have not yet had any consultation or questionnaires and are wondering...
I went for an ADHD consultation at the well known and long established Maudsley hospital/clinic in London in April 2010.
8 months before that, to be accepted for consultation, I had to fill in 20 pages of questionnaires (about 600q's - I counted), self rating 1-5. One month before going I had to fill in another 400, my mother also had to fill in about 400.
For the year before that I went to see the local mental health team, had 4 sessions of mumbo jumbo stuff aka neurolinguistic programming theory, cognitive behaviour therapy; then saw a psychiatrist, a psychologist (for 2 sessions until I pushed the ADHD issue) an endocrinologist for hypogonadism related traits (during the wait for adhd consult)
I covered many bases inc antidepressants, hormonal assessment, mental etc.
After learning more and being more objective, refusing to get to easily labelled by telling people what the wanted to hear for meeting the critera, I actually contacted the MIRIAD project at kings college (Mood instability research into Attention deficits) as they are intricately linked with the royal college of psychiatrists, the maudsley, NICE etc
I told them that I wasn't so sure that I had ADHD because my symptoms didn't seem strong enough. They said I should still have assessment at the maudsley.
When I got to the maudsley, the grey-area-hating part of my psychology meant that I was objective about ADHD and I told them "I'm not sure that I really have it as I've never got big time into drink and drugs at all"
_____________________________
THE ACTUAL CONSULT
I had to talk to 2 people individually, total 3 hours 20 mins.
The assistant psychologist used the DSM-IV-TR (USA) diagnostic for her interview with me (1 hour 20 mins) The consultant psychiatrist analysed all of the data presented to him, as well as the results from our 2 hour discussion.
There were screeners for:
Bipolar Spectrum Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Depression, ADHD, Autism spectrum disorders. Others' I can't remember.
Now, the important part is that the Consultation was out of area funded by the NHS, which means the NHS agrees with the maudsley's assessment criteria. Some of these were DSM-IV-tr ratings, so UK had no part in creating them.
There were many ADHD questionnaires. My 6 page maudsley reported detailed them.
1) Barkley current symptoms scale(self report) not UK originated.
2) Barkley current symptoms scale (informant report) ^^^=see above
3) Barkley childhood symptoms scale (self report) ^^^
4) Barkley childhood symptoms scale (informant report) ^^^
5) Conners Global index (self report) ^^^
6) Conners Global index (informant report) ^^^
7) Wender Utah rating scale ^^^
8) DSM-IV-TR ^^^
Seems that none of the questionnaires are even UK originated!
This is not really surprising because only ICD-10 (manual from the World Health Organisation) hyperkinetic ADHD was "officially" recognised in this country until the non-UK based Combined, Hyperactive and inattentive subtypes appeared.
ADHD has been known (one label was simply "disorder of the nerves") and treated for about 40-50 years in the USA (don't know about other countries), so they have have a big start on the knowledge base since Ritalin was discovered to have some beneficial effects...
However, there may have been some poor quality interpretation of critera to sell ritalin in the old days. Those gin swigging docs needed to fund their habit after all...
So, in the case of ADHD, UK criteria aren't really there that I can see, so you can study dsm-4 dsm 5 etc without any probs, because CURRENTLY, there doesn't seem to be a uk diagnostic.
My outcome was "advised to seek an autism consultation due to exceeding asd screeners and assessment for for mood difficulties, anxiety"
Dysthymia can easily represent a lot of my traits as well lol. (think jack dee- a confessed depressive alcholic)
Social avoidance or social indifference are also 2 of the strings to my broken bow of life. ;D
___________
Maybe some people would sway the verdict by exaggerating a bit, to get a diagnosis. Maybe I could have got medicated and not be languishing anymore....
After all. Ritalin was not created for ADHD, it is purely a stimulant and since it existed people used it for "study boosting" and experimentation, mood amoleriation etc, however for adhd it seems to strike well in most cases, apparently.
I am so apathetic, unfortunately, that I have not even seeked atypical antidepressants/ alternate mood altering meds for my apathy in the last 18 months.
Anyway, I hope this clears some "unknowns "out of the way..
Please only contribute to this thread in a concise, detailed, balanced manner as I have tried ;D to convey in this post (after 10 edits)
I went for an ADHD consultation at the well known and long established Maudsley hospital/clinic in London in April 2010.
8 months before that, to be accepted for consultation, I had to fill in 20 pages of questionnaires (about 600q's - I counted), self rating 1-5. One month before going I had to fill in another 400, my mother also had to fill in about 400.
For the year before that I went to see the local mental health team, had 4 sessions of mumbo jumbo stuff aka neurolinguistic programming theory, cognitive behaviour therapy; then saw a psychiatrist, a psychologist (for 2 sessions until I pushed the ADHD issue) an endocrinologist for hypogonadism related traits (during the wait for adhd consult)
I covered many bases inc antidepressants, hormonal assessment, mental etc.
After learning more and being more objective, refusing to get to easily labelled by telling people what the wanted to hear for meeting the critera, I actually contacted the MIRIAD project at kings college (Mood instability research into Attention deficits) as they are intricately linked with the royal college of psychiatrists, the maudsley, NICE etc
I told them that I wasn't so sure that I had ADHD because my symptoms didn't seem strong enough. They said I should still have assessment at the maudsley.
When I got to the maudsley, the grey-area-hating part of my psychology meant that I was objective about ADHD and I told them "I'm not sure that I really have it as I've never got big time into drink and drugs at all"
_____________________________
THE ACTUAL CONSULT
I had to talk to 2 people individually, total 3 hours 20 mins.
The assistant psychologist used the DSM-IV-TR (USA) diagnostic for her interview with me (1 hour 20 mins) The consultant psychiatrist analysed all of the data presented to him, as well as the results from our 2 hour discussion.
There were screeners for:
Bipolar Spectrum Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Depression, ADHD, Autism spectrum disorders. Others' I can't remember.
Now, the important part is that the Consultation was out of area funded by the NHS, which means the NHS agrees with the maudsley's assessment criteria. Some of these were DSM-IV-tr ratings, so UK had no part in creating them.
There were many ADHD questionnaires. My 6 page maudsley reported detailed them.
1) Barkley current symptoms scale(self report) not UK originated.
2) Barkley current symptoms scale (informant report) ^^^=see above
3) Barkley childhood symptoms scale (self report) ^^^
4) Barkley childhood symptoms scale (informant report) ^^^
5) Conners Global index (self report) ^^^
6) Conners Global index (informant report) ^^^
7) Wender Utah rating scale ^^^
8) DSM-IV-TR ^^^
Seems that none of the questionnaires are even UK originated!
This is not really surprising because only ICD-10 (manual from the World Health Organisation) hyperkinetic ADHD was "officially" recognised in this country until the non-UK based Combined, Hyperactive and inattentive subtypes appeared.
ADHD has been known (one label was simply "disorder of the nerves") and treated for about 40-50 years in the USA (don't know about other countries), so they have have a big start on the knowledge base since Ritalin was discovered to have some beneficial effects...
However, there may have been some poor quality interpretation of critera to sell ritalin in the old days. Those gin swigging docs needed to fund their habit after all...
So, in the case of ADHD, UK criteria aren't really there that I can see, so you can study dsm-4 dsm 5 etc without any probs, because CURRENTLY, there doesn't seem to be a uk diagnostic.
My outcome was "advised to seek an autism consultation due to exceeding asd screeners and assessment for for mood difficulties, anxiety"
Dysthymia can easily represent a lot of my traits as well lol. (think jack dee- a confessed depressive alcholic)
Social avoidance or social indifference are also 2 of the strings to my broken bow of life. ;D
___________
Maybe some people would sway the verdict by exaggerating a bit, to get a diagnosis. Maybe I could have got medicated and not be languishing anymore....
After all. Ritalin was not created for ADHD, it is purely a stimulant and since it existed people used it for "study boosting" and experimentation, mood amoleriation etc, however for adhd it seems to strike well in most cases, apparently.
I am so apathetic, unfortunately, that I have not even seeked atypical antidepressants/ alternate mood altering meds for my apathy in the last 18 months.
Anyway, I hope this clears some "unknowns "out of the way..
Please only contribute to this thread in a concise, detailed, balanced manner as I have tried ;D to convey in this post (after 10 edits)