Quote:
Originally Posted by stormyangels
With DID my diagnosis is kinda hard to miss  Gotta know it to treat it effectively I think. I'm glad she is involved in getting to know about it because it can be really hard to treat.
For my clients, I'm not big on diagnosis, only do it cause I have to for insurance. I tend to do very "low level" diagnosis (depressive disorder nos, anxiety disorder nos, adjustment disorder). I usually use diagnostic information to dispute what parents feel their child has. Most often they feel their child has bipolar. The way I was trained, you do NOT diagnose bipolar until 18, and I stick to that unless there is very apparent evidence to the contrary. So I often use my "lower level" diagnosis to talk with parents instead of them self diagnosing their kid because bipolar is the "fad diagnosis" now. |
Are you familiar with
www.jbrf.org? While I agree that pediatric bp is over diagnosed, it is also often misdiagnosed, leading kids to be put on the wrong meds for years. The site has lots of good info, backed up by continuing research. It also inludes an assessment tool that can be used for free by the parent and brought into the diagnosing clinician. Also, clinicians can buy access to the measures if the would like to administer them in the office. The measure also pays special attention to the differential diagnosis between ADHD and BP.
The other thing I wanted to throw into the mix are the benefits, yes benefits, of a more severe diagnosis when dealing with an insurance companies. Because of parity laws, many insurance companies cover biological diagnoses at a greater level than the nonbiological diagnoses you mentioned. For example, my insurance company covers dysthymia for 20 sessions per year. Major depression, being a bio dx, earned me unlimited visits. It's not right, but it is what it is.
Food for thought.
EJ