Who Can Help?
Family Practitioner: Family doctors are generally the first healthcare professionals you may turn to for help. They are most likely to know your child, and have an understanding of your family as a whole. You may want to ask about their experience with ADHD, since not all family practitioners treat ADHD. Family physicians are also an excellent resource for therapeutic referrals to local ADHD specialists.
Pediatrician: Pediatricians have specialized training in treating children's illnesses. Like the family practitioner, pediatricians may or may not have experience with ADHD. Because ADHD is most prevalent in children, it is likely that a pediatrician has experience in the ADHD screening process, and can help rule ut (or identify) medical conditions similar to behavior or learning patterns of ADHD. In addition, pediatricians will have more experience than a family physician in prescribing medications for children. And like family physicians, they, too, are an excellent resource for therapeutic referrals to local ADHD specialists.
Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician: A developmental and behavioral pediatrician is a doctor who specializes in behavior and development in children. Acting as a liaison with primary care physicians and other medical specialists, developmental and behavioral pediatricians serve as key members of the multidisciplinary team. They provide comprehensive developmental, medical, and behavioral assessments; education for parents and professionals regarding various medical/developmental diagnoses; and medical management of ADHD and other neurobehavioral disorders. Pediatricians specializing in developmental and behavioral issues have completed continuing education beyond their pediatric residency as required by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Psychiatrist: A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illnesses and emotional problems. Because of extensive medical training, the psychiatrist understands the body's functions and the complex relationship between emotional illness and other medical illnesses. The psychiatrist is thus the mental health professional and physician best qualified to distinguish between physical and psychological causes of both mental and physical distress.
Because they are physicians, psychiatrists can order or perform a full range of medical laboratory and psychological tests that provide a complete picture of a patient's physical and mental state. Their education and years of clinical experience equip them to understand the complex relationship between emotional and other medical illnesses, evaluate all the medical and psychological data, make a diagnosis, and develop a treatment plan.
Psychiatrists use a wide range of treatments-including various forms of psychotherapy, medications and hospitalization-according to the needs of each patient.
Psychotherapy is a systematic treatment method in which, during regularly scheduled meetings, the psychiatrist and patient discuss troubling problems and feelings. The physician helps patients understand the basis of these problems and find solutions. Depending on the extent of the problem, treatment may take just a few sessions over one or two weeks, or many sessions over several years.
Psychiatrists use many forms of psychotherapy. These are psychotherapies that help patients change behaviors or thought patterns, psychotherapies that help patients explore the effect of past relationships and experiences on present behaviors, psychotherapies that treat troubled couples or families together, and more treatments that are tailored to help solve other problems in specific ways.
Psychoanalysis is an intensive form of individual psychotherapy which requires frequent sessions over several years. The psychiatrist, who must have additional years of training in psychoanalysis, helps the patient to recall and examine events, memories and feelings from the past, many of them long forgotten, as a means of helping the patient understand present feelings and behavior and make changes as necessary.
