Welcome to the new Military Caregiving Expert Advice series. Our caregiving team is rolling out with a new blog series entitled, Expert Advice, where we provide monthly advice from subject matter experts on issues surrounding military caregiving for service providers and families. We take questions and concerns from military helping professionals and families and provide the necessary feedback from credible experts in the field of study. Whether you are a provider or a caregiver, what questions do you have? We want to hear from you. (Type your response in the comments section of this article.)
Expert Advice in Child Psychiatry
To kick off our new series, we focus on issues surrounding caregiving and special needs within the military. In a recent professional development training on ADHD, Anxiety, and Autism: Practical Approaches to Child Psychiatry service providers and families learned about practical ways parents and caregivers can help manage these disorders, while reconnecting with the fun of parenting. Below we highlight a question from an audience member and expert advice from a board certified child and adolescent psychiatrist.
Question: Does general anxiety ever get misdiagnosed as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)?
Advice: Anxiety is often misdiagnosed as ADD which is why the interview process (for diagnosing Anxiety and ADD) is so important. There are many times children come in having trouble with concentration, which is part of the diagnosis and criteria for both anxiety and ADD. The problem arises with the treatment of ADD because there are certain treatments that might actually make the anxiety worse. It is very important that we are careful to make sure we have the right diagnosis.
Expert: Brian Dixon, M.D., Executive Director of Progressive Psychiatry, P.A. and Board Certified Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
Have a question for our military caregiving team? Let us know! Stay tuned for more from our Expert Advice series.
This MFLN-Military Caregiving concentration blog post was published on May 20, 2016.
