Reply #17: My son (who's 3) has been similarly diagnosed... [View All]

... though only by our pediatrician. But her husband is our son's neurologist, so she's pretty informed on such things (my son went to him and some physical therapy early in life due to some developmental problems).

The "diagnosis" such as it was, was something like "Somewhere in the spectrum of disorders between OCD and Aspergers; read up on Aspergers and autism just to be informed". She also said he was "behaviorally/emotionally delayed" (although ahead of the game as far as physical and intellectual development).

This scared us a lot, because we thought his problems were over. But we're coming to realize that he's just going to be a sensitive boy, if a bit immature.

I know you might be in a far more complicated situation, since your kid's already in school and having problems. But I would take such diagnoses with a grain of salt, especially the way you laid them out (and I really think our Dr. just wants us to be aware and approach certain things with him in a way that might help). I think your psychiatrist is the most resonable. Every kid IS different, and all of these conditions are vague "syndromes" and "disorders". There are legitimate debates within the scientific community about what defines them (if not even their very existence).

For the record, my brother is a world class neurosurgeon (top of his class at Hopkins), and although he's no expert in the specific field, his opinion is that the psychiatric profession has a tendency to want to pigeonhole every kid with some diagnosis, and treat that diagnosis with some medication.