ADHD Is adhd really ptsd in disguise?

[Lucycat]

This week I had an interesting discussion with my T. He has recently been on a trauma training course where there was a visiting American psychiatrist as a guest speaker.

She suggested that children diagnosed with ADHD usually are mis-diagnosed and receive the wrong treatment, as she believes they all have a past history of trauma and would be better diagnosed with and treated for PTSD.

I can see there are lots of overlaps in the symptoms of both conditions. I also see that treating ADHD without addressing the underlying trauma could be storing up problems for later life.

Just wondered if anyone else has heard this and what are your thoughts?

 

[therapybankrupt]

Good Afternoon Lucycat. I agree with you on this. I can believe this gets misdiagnosed in many children. They have similar ways of acting out at times and they. Are some times not paying attention it seems. I have a nephew who has a abusive mother and he has seen trauma. She is trying to get him diagnosed with ADHD. The symptoms do overlap. I see that! After much research I think he has PSTD. So I hope she does not succeed in drugging the child up for the wrong disorder! My brother is fighting it and taking him to the therapist.

 

[AmyO]

Funny you mentioned this. I have 3 boys with PTSD and they keep telling me that it is ADHD. They gave my oldest stimulants saying that it would help calm and focus him. I have never ran so much in my life as I did with a child hopped up on adderall and misdiagnosed.

I was just reading the other day about a study done at Boston Childrens Hospital that they re-examined 700 cases of ADHD in children in the study. Out of those 67 percent had at least one instance of trauma and another 12 percent had at least 4 instances of trauma. Now they also said that one could lead to the other but they are still conducting studies.

I have done the med shuffle...and it is not fun. Good luck.

 

[intothelight]

This is very interesting. My oldest was born in 1978 and was diagnosed with ADHD in 1982, lets say before the diagnosis became so prevalent. At first they tested his hearing thinking he was hearing impaired, and then he was diagnosed with autism, but it wasn't until an EEG was done that some "abnormalities" were found that the neurologist diagnosed the ADHD. No trauma at that point and interestingly, he is not the child diagnosed with PTSD.

 

[Springer80]

Hi this doesn't surprise me at all and it's frightening...I went to conference on dissociative disorders and DID and although the NHS (UK health service) allowed a survey to take place they refused to credit the findings that alot of people they were medicating for schizophrenia had DID. I wonder why denying trauma is so necessary to society even whens it causes more of the same. In children though it's heart breaking and chilling.

 

[surviving_it_all]

This doesn't surprise me. PTSD makes me unable to focus. I have to change tasks a lot not to get anxious. It would make sense that ADHD could be misdiagnosed when PTSD is really the culprit.

 

[Abstract]

I guess the interesting thing here is that there are possible different concepts:

• That children often appear to have ADHD when they in fact have PTSD.
• That ADHD is similar to PTSD.
• That trauma causes ADHD.
• That being traumatised causes a spectrum of attention problems one of which is ADHD and another PTSD.

I wonder if she was meaning that children with ADHD are often traumatised and would benefit from the type of treatment used for treating PTSD rather than saying they are the same thing.

I would imagine there would be many just misdiagnosed though although it seems that what she is talking about is more than that.

 

[Ayasha]

I've honestly been diagnosed with both disorders because there is a difference between them for me. There are similarities, but ADHD doesn't involve some of the more troubling symptoms PTSD can cause.

From ADHD, my brain can't "tune out" noises as easily as others and I almost always have way more energy than I should but it isn't anxiety, it is just energy that needs to be spent. I also need what I am focusing on to be right in my direct line of sight or I can't focus on it at all (which is why I have to be placed in specific spots in the classroom).

 

[ChoctawWarrior]

Okay this is confusing I don't get it....LOL I have both disorders. xP

 

[Deleted member 1860]

She suggested that children diagnosed with ADHD usually are mis-diagnosed and receive the wrong treatment, as she believes they all have a past history of trauma and would be better diagnosed with and treated for PTSD.

I would be cautious of blanket statements like this. No doubt there is some misdiagnosis as it happens no matter what the ailment. I just hesitate to agree with an extreme statement that ALL ADHD kids have been traumatized. The truth is that they haven't.

 

[ms spock]

I have known quite a number of parents that have abused their kids and have tried to get mental health diagnoses for their kids. Abusers can often be quite persuasive. So I watched with interest.

Despite the physical, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and other abuse of children in my family and my extended family - they looked for other diagnoses. Being weathly, white, impressive, well educated and charismatic people they got away with it. After I disclosed about the sexual abuse in my family I became the "crazy" one.

So I don't know about ADHD vs PTSD diagnosis at all.

I do know that a number of psychriatrists, including mine, think that there might be a genetic predisposition to mental illness but it needs a pretty crappy childhood to activate it in many cases, up to a third of people in some estimates and more in other estimates.

 

[anthony]

She suggested that children diagnosed with ADHD usually are mis-diagnosed and receive the wrong treatment, as she believes they all have a past history of trauma and would be better diagnosed with and treated for PTSD.

I think the visiting shrink is a whack job and out there on a planet other than her peers. No doubt she has some explanation for those who have ADHD and have had a great childhood raising, other than the attention deficit.