<p>One of the brightest neuropsychologists I've met in a long time recently took a position at the U of W in their Epilepsy Center. If he is not able to help you, he should be able to direct you to someone who can. His name is Dr. Dan Drane. I'll email him privately and tell him he may hear from you-- can you PM me with your name so that I may give him the heads up and give you his office #? By the way, who did you meet on vacation?</p>
<p>jym626- I must have missed the earlier post. What additional training would a neuropsychologist have?
I am curious since I know several people who have gotten PH.D's in psychology from schools that require no classroom time. One woman I know did have reading, papers and possibly exams but there was no classroom time. She did write a thesis and defended it but I don't put much faith in this type of learning. She is an extremely intelligient person who has a masters in school counseling from a traditional university. She is doing her hours to get licensed by the state of Ca. Interestly she is working with a psychologist who tests adults for ADD.
It just seems amazing that someone could call themselves a psychologist when they have had this sort of education. I think it shows that one must throughly check out the person they seeing.</p>
<p>m60-
You are asking several different questions, but the short answer is that the best training will have come from an APA-approved school and an APA approved internship. You can look on the APA website (<a href="http://www.apa.org%5B/url%5D">www.apa.org</a>) and it should have a section on the graduate training programs. The two main organizations for neuropsychologists are the International Neuropsychological Society (<a href="http://www.the-ins.org%5B/url%5D">www.the-ins.org</a>) and the National Academy of Neuropsychology (<a href="http://www.nanonline.org%5B/url%5D">www.nanonline.org</a>). I would recommend you take a look at these sites and they should answer your questions. Here is another link that you might find helpful -- about neuropsychology and LD <a href="http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search?encquery=CF9EB12F6AA5CC2408AD530DCC4594B63E3D29123F15ABBC403FC76DD69517F204BA9E46D3CFE45AC203B263C0570005&invocationType=keyword_rollover&ie=UTF-8%5B/url%5D">http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search?encquery=CF9EB12F6AA5CC2408AD530DCC4594B63E3D29123F15ABBC403FC76DD69517F204BA9E46D3CFE45AC203B263C0570005&invocationType=keyword_rollover&ie=UTF-8</a>
other sites that may be helpful (though one is more related to rehab and brain injury and one to the professionals) is villamartelli.com and neuropsychology central.com.</p>
<p>One other website to check, that will answer a lot of your questions, is <a href="http://www.medfriendly.com%5B/url%5D">www.medfriendly.com</a>. The section on neuropsychology is written by a very well respected neuropsychologist.</p>
<p>Thanks to some of you for nice PMs.</p>
<p>We are getting an evaluation of my son's vision (from a therapeutic POV)-- since most lower scores on tests related to visual tasks. Just in case there is a visual component. More soon.</p>
<p>Appointment with Vision Therapy specialist/Optometrist was today.</p>
<p>My son has a definite visual defect. He has eyes that "want" to cross, and every time he changes his focal distance, they cross for an instant before he 'forces' them to be straight. This would impact the diagnostic tests with a visual component (the lion's share of his poor results). </p>
<p>Optometrist had him read aloud, then tried him in glasses that correct the crossing problem & had him read aloud again. Difference was very noticeable-- from decent reader with a few halts & missed words (and using finger to keep place) to much more fluidity, speed, no missed words, plus no finger needed to keep place.</p>
<p>There are another set of tests next week to refine results. We will get glasses for reading (for "hardware" problem). Then my S will do vision therapy 1x per week for 12 weeks (for "software" problem.) </p>
<p>Doctor says he suspects that there will be a marked difference. ADD symptoms should abate, as less effort will be required to sustain his attention, to focus and re-focus eyes, etc-- and his speed should improve too.</p>
<p>Says people in our area (So Calif) are not as savvy to the profound effects of vision problems on ADD as they are in other areas of the country.</p>
<p>THANK YOU SO MUCH to all on this thread who offered me you compassion, suggestions, and advice. Thank yo for your PMs and your ideas. I really appreciate you! </p>
<p>I am feeling so much better about everything today. :)</p>
<p>Update--</p>
<p>With all the vision therapy, support at school support at home, my son <em>still</em> has fairly significant ADD. The vision therapy certainly helped and with the personal support, his grades went to low-B level. But the moment the study hall teacher or I let up one teensy bit, everything breaks down again.</p>
<p>Because of this, we are going to try a medication approach over the summer to see what drug/dose might help and then let him try at school with the medication. </p>
<p>I had wanted to avoid this-- but when your kid gets detention due to being perpetually late to his after-lunch class, then misses detention TWICE due to forgetting he even has detention-- well, you begin to get the picture that he genuinely can't help a lot of this.</p>
<p>Anyhow I would like more info on the medications if anyone wants to offer any personal experiences. My doctor has said it is pretty individual in terms of what dose/what drug works and that not all kids are helped by meds, so it is something to try out and see what the result is.</p>
<p>Info appreciated.</p>
<p>Hi SBmom!
Keep in mind that it is hard to get a true "read" of the benefits of the meds over the summer, as you won't have your s. in an academic environment. You'd look for things like social skills/social interaction, cooperation, etc. in the summer months.You are more likely to be aware of the common early side effects (appetite suppression, sleep disturbance etc), but those usually go away, or get better, so give it some time for him to adjust.</p>
<p>Assuming there are no other comorbid issues, it is common to start with the old standby- Ritalin. It is in and out of his system in about 4 hours, so if he has any trouble (such as the appetite suppression), it's gone faster. It's also easier to titrate the doses. I'd stay away from the generic if you can. Its been found to be less consistent. Also, some kids get a little whiney when the med wears off, but he is old enough that that shouldnt be a big issue.</p>
<p>Concerta is a longer lasting med very similar to Ritalin- takes a little longer to kick in in the morning, but lasts 12 hours. There have been some problems with Adderall, so I'd put that on the bottom of the list if you can. Strattera isnt a stimulant so doesnt have those side effects, but it takes weeks for a response, so you'd have to really be patient. there have been a few instances of liver toxicity with Strattera. The other med is Metadate. It just doesn't seem as popular (porbably bad marketing- I dont think there is anything wrong with the med).
Hope this helps!</p>
<p>I had to do a search cause my daughter isn't here to tell me his name jym! I guess he isn't a neuropysch per se it was John Neumaier
he is more a psychatrist neurologist - this is his current work
*I direct the Molecular Neurosciences laboratory in the recently opened Harborview Research and Training Building.
I am studying the regulation of serotonin receptors in rat brain in animal models of psychiatric illnesses. There are currently three main projects in the laboratory:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The regulation of 5-HT1B receptors and mRNA by antidepressants and in animal models of depression. We have found that 5-HT1B receptor mRNA is increased in the dorsal raphe nucleus of learned helpless rats and is reduced by serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitors. We are exploring how these medications specifically regulate presynaptic 5-HT1B receptors using molecular pharmacological and physiological approaches.</p></li>
<li><p>The signal transduction pathways mediating 5-HT1B action in rat brain and in cell lines.</p></li>
<li><p>Regulation of 5-HT6 and 5-HT7 receptors by antipsychotic drugs.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Our currently used techniques include: viral mediated gene transfer; in situ hybridization; RT-PCR, radioligand binding; immunocytochemistry; stereotaxic surgery; drug administration, in vitro cell culture, and signal transduction reporter gene assays.*
It was pretty cool meeting him- and my daughter got a kick out of him being a Reedie.
Anyway- my younger daughter was put on Strattera yesterday for ADD- I suggested it because she wanted/needed some help with paying attention and motivation- but unfortunately I wasn't able to go to the appt with her- I have a big yakima box on the top of the jeep and I couldn't find any parking downtown- so I drove around for an hour- ( parking garages were too low- no street parking and I wasnt going to pay $20 for an 1 1/2 hrs)
I suggested it, because with her anxiety ( she is on xanax) I didn't think Ritalin would have been a good choice- her sister is also on it- but I didn't know about the liver toxicity.
I have had good results with extended Adderall, but I hate taking meds even when I need them so I haven't taken it for over a year and now that they are having reports of problems I doubt I will ever take it.
I didn't get clear instructions of how to wean off xanax I assume she wont have to take it anymore( I hope) I was really suprised at her being prescribed it in the first place.</p>
<p>Thanks jym, we were thinking Ritalin for the first try too. I will keep you posted.</p>
<p>I suspect I will see the results at home because I certainly observe non-academic instances of ADD behavior right now.</p>
<p>sbmom-
I forgot to mention- when you use Ritalin, remember that your goal is to find the best dose, not the least dose. Many people try to keep the dose as low as possible and it ends up not being effective. </p>
<p>One <em>fun</em> exercise to see the efficacy of the med is to drag your son shopping with you, and go to both a store full of things he loves and things he could care less about. If the meds are having a benefit ( and if he is the impulsive or inattentive type), you shouldn't have to find him distracted by all the stuff in the fun store or totally irritible and impatient in the boring store.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity-
If your d. wasn't on a high dose of xanax, the tapering off of the meds should be pretty straightforward. If she was on a high dose (say over 3 mgs/day) you want to taper down slowly.</p>
<p>Ritalin caused my younger S to become aggressive and antagonistic and we had to stop it immediately: it had a horrible effect on him. Adderall has worked quite well for him, however. It, too, is fairly fast out of the system (he does not take the extended type), from what I've understood. Have I been wrong about this?</p>
<p>I have a relative who was diagnosed with ADD at age 4-5, I think, after extensive evaluations & testing by physicians, neuropsychologists, teachers. Anyway, has had meds for most of his life, starting with Ritalin and maybe moving to Adderal. Hasn't had any other accomodations for academics that I know of and is currently finishing first yr of high school with a solid group of courses - some Honors & some regular College Prep and good grades.
Eats like there is no tomorrow, is well-mannered, polite (most of the time), hard-working, likes to sleep late, torments his younger sibs, etc. Basically like a "normal" teen...you would probably never guess he is ADD and on meds.
So anyway, good luck in working with the various professionals and using support systems and meds to help your son reach his potential! It can be accomplished.</p>