Dr. Claudia Gold was just beginning her own pediatrics practice when she unexpectedly inherited an already-developed practice from a doctor who suddenly passed away. All of her new patients had been diagnosed with ADHD, which fit perfectly with her expertise and experience. Her first order of business was to re-evaluate her new patients.

"If I was going to prescribe a mind altering drug to these children, I wanted to learn what was going on in their lives. I particularly tried to open things up when kids were doing poorly. I didn’t focus on adjusting the dose of medication when they were failing in school, but explored other possible reasons for their academic struggles.” [Source: MedPage Today]

While some patients were frustrated with Dr. Gold’s approach, others welcomed it. Over the course of a year some of her patients have agreed to therapy and other behavioral treatments, and have been able to reduce or eliminate ADHD medication. Dr. Gold knows that some of her patients have neurological deficiencies that require medication, and for those she’s happy to prescribe something appropriate. But she also knows that sometimes ADHD-like symptoms aren’t caused by ADHD, and for those patients, medication may not be needed at all.


 

Labels: diagnosis

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton