A man called my office by mistake last week. He ended up telling me that he was looking for an MD for his 10 year old son who has ADHD. Being the passionate change agent that I am, I tried to coax him to have his son examined by me instead. Not only was he very resistant (who wouldn't be, since he called me by accident), but he also told me that he was pleased with the results of the drugs that his son has been taking. I asked him if he was fully content with the results of the drugs. He said that he was. Why continue the conversation from that point forward? Then I realized that many people are completely content with giving their child a drug to change behavior and symptoms. What about the cause of the problem? What about the direct effects of the drug? (I don't like the phrase 'side effects') What about the long term effects of the drugs? What is going to happen to the shape of the receptors in the brain? The list goes on and on.

In contrast, I spoke with a woman yesterday. Her children attend the same school as mine. She introduced me to her young daughter. The girl didn't look me in the eye. Her mother told me later that her daughter had been diagnosed first with a high functional form of autism. But recently, a neurologist said she actually had Sensory Deprivation Disorder. I asked her if she asked the doctors what that actually meant. She exuberantly said, "That's it! No one can tell me what the actual problem is! How can we treat something when we don't know what it is?" I said, "That's right! Do you think it's odd that all these children are on medications and very few people can actually tell you what the cause of the problem is?"
Ah...........Finally a woman who is thinking outside the box.

I can find out what the problem is. Usually, there is a part of the brain on one side that is firing at a different frequency than the other side. Without drugs or surgery, my exam can usually find the area of dysfunction. Then, there are many different treatments to improve the areas of the brain that need stimulation. We can change your brain together!