ADHD misdiagnosis can have a serious impact on your child’s life.
ADHD misdiagnosis can have a serious impact on your child’s life.
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Mrs E.Swaffield
Loughborough
If your child was prescribed medication following a diagnosis of ADHD by your doctor but the medication doesn’t seem to have worked, the reason may be that their inattentive, restless or disruptive behaviour is caused by anxiety and not ADHD.
A misdiagnosis of ADHD may happen when the symptoms presented by a patient, who is almost always a young child, may not be fully understood or are not examined more thoroughly. ADHD includes a group of behaviours that may individually be diagnosed as belonging to another type of disorder or be caused by a different reason entirely. Common childhood phases of behaviour, such as being restless or inattentive, are often completely normal and do not necessarily indicate symptoms of ADHD.
The methods by which ADHD is diagnosed and treated, including the use of particular types of medications prescribed for children, can lead to over-diagnosis, misdiagnosis and a failure to identify and treat the real underlying causes. Meanwhile, genuine cases of unidentified and untreated ADHD can often continue into adulthood.
Read moreYou may have good reason to believe that “something was not quite right, somehow” with a doctor’s assessment or strongly feel that your child was incorrectly diagnosed and has not been provided with an expected level of appropriate care.
Read lessAs experienced clinical negligence specialists, we know that if you feel you have been let down and your child has not received the appropriate standard of care required to properly diagnose and treat ADHD, you expect to be given an explanation.
As experienced clinical negligence specialists, we know that if you feel you have been let down and your child has not received the appropriate standard of care required to properly diagnose and treat ADHD, you expect to be given an explanation.
Read moreThat’s why we are committed to guiding you through every step of the process. We ensure that your claim is handled carefully and professionally by our specialist solicitors, while working alongside medical experts, to guarantee the best results for you.
Our medical misdiagnosis team is headed by Laura Morgan who has a wealth of experience in leading complicated, high-value diabetes cases.
Laura is recognised within the legal profession as a leader in the field of medical negligence and serious injury compensation. Laura has acted in a wide range of cases over her 17 years of practice and has particular expertise in acting for children who have suffered brain injury due to mismanaged birth or surgical errors, and in managing claims that have resulted in the death of a loved one. Laura has achieved a number of large settlements including £5.4 million for a 7-year-old and £4 million for an 11-year-old child.
Laura’s expertise and dedication to her clients is recognised in the Chambers guide to the Legal Profession in which she was praised for the efficiency of her approach to case handling and described as “tenacious and detail-oriented”.
Laura has been a member of the Law Society Clinical Negligence Panel since 2005 and accredited as a Senior Litigator in the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) since 2006. Laura is also a member of the specialist lawyers panel for Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA), the UK’s leading charity committed to patient safety and justice.
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The effects of medical negligence can be devastating for the individual and their families, so securing appropriate compensation for them as quickly as possible is our top priority.
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ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and can occur in people of any intellectual ability.
It is completely normal for children, especially those who are very young, to have shorter attention spans than adults, although some children can have greater difficulty in focusing than others.
The symptom of inattention is often first observed at school as daydreaming, being easily distracted or having difficulty following directions and completing tasks or assignments.
However, there can be many other explanations for a child’s inattention, such as not getting on with the teacher, worry or anxiety over something that’s happening at home, or being bullied in the playground.
Read moreGirls often have a form of ADHD with less noticeable symptoms relating to problems of paying attention rather than hyperactivity.
Main symptoms of ADHD are:
Other common symptoms:
Runs in the family
The exact cause of ADHD is unknown, but the condition can be hereditary. Both parents, brothers or sisters of a child with ADHD are four to five times more likely to have suffered ADHD themselves.
Brain function
Certain areas of the brain may either be smaller or larger and may take an average of two to three years longer to mature in children with ADHD. An imbalance in the level of chemicals in the brain can mean that the brand does not function properly.
Other potential factors could include:
Most cases of ADHD are diagnosed in children between the ages of 6 and 12 but the condition can appear in different ways at different ages as the child grows and the need to develop ‘social’ self-control increases, for example, when starting school.
The symptom of inattention may reduce and the attention span usually increases with age but the condition may still be apparent in varying degrees throughout adult life.
Pre-school - incessant and demanding extremes of ‘hyper’ activity
School years - excessive movements in response to every situation
Adolescence - excessive fidgeting rather than ‘whole body’ movement’
Adult life - a sustained inner sense of restlessness.
Misdiagnosis of ADHD can often be traced to the following causes:
A wider definition of the condition in doctor’s guidelines leading to misinterpreted symptoms. The term ADHD has been applied to an expanding collection of behavioural problems linked to poor attention span, including impulsiveness, restlessness and hyperactivity.
Born either just before or after the cut-off date for the first year of school. Being up to 12 months younger than the oldest children in the class can mean that a child’s inattention or misbehaviour can be mistaken for hyperactivity by teaching staff.
Read moreOther common misdiagnoses:
Differentiating between the shared symptoms of ADHD and bipolar mood disorder can be extremely difficult and could also lead to a misdiagnosis.
ADHD affects attention and behaviour - inattention, distractibility, impulsiveness, and/or physical restlessness.
Bipolar disorder primarily affects mood - exaggerated shifts in mood, energy, thinking, and behaviour—from manic highs to extreme, depressive lows.
The causes of behaviour in young children can be complicated. Often they display phases where they are restless or inattentive, which is completely normal and does not necessarily mean your child has ADHD.
Where there have been concerns raised over behaviour that appears to be different to most children of their age, a doctor may not have made a thorough enough assessment. A misdiagnosis may have also led to a wrongly prescribed medication.
ADHD stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and can occur in people of any intellectual ability.
It is completely normal for children, especially those who are very young, to have shorter attention spans than adults, although some children can have greater difficulty in focusing than others.
The symptom of inattention is often first observed at school as daydreaming, being easily distracted or having difficulty following directions and completing tasks or assignments.
However, there can be many other explanations for a child’s inattention, such as not getting on with the teacher, worry or anxiety over something that’s happening at home, or being bullied in the playground.
Read moreGirls often have a form of ADHD with less noticeable symptoms relating to problems of paying attention rather than hyperactivity.
Main symptoms of ADHD are:
Other common symptoms:
Runs in the family
The exact cause of ADHD is unknown, but the condition can be hereditary. Both parents, brothers or sisters of a child with ADHD are four to five times more likely to have suffered ADHD themselves.
Brain function
Certain areas of the brain may either be smaller or larger and may take an average of two to three years longer to mature in children with ADHD. An imbalance in the level of chemicals in the brain can mean that the brand does not function properly.
Other potential factors could include:
Most cases of ADHD are diagnosed in children between the ages of 6 and 12 but the condition can appear in different ways at different ages as the child grows and the need to develop ‘social’ self-control increases, for example, when starting school.
The symptom of inattention may reduce and the attention span usually increases with age but the condition may still be apparent in varying degrees throughout adult life.
Pre-school - incessant and demanding extremes of ‘hyper’ activity
School years - excessive movements in response to every situation
Adolescence - excessive fidgeting rather than ‘whole body’ movement’
Adult life - a sustained inner sense of restlessness.
Misdiagnosis of ADHD can often be traced to the following causes:
A wider definition of the condition in doctor’s guidelines leading to misinterpreted symptoms. The term ADHD has been applied to an expanding collection of behavioural problems linked to poor attention span, including impulsiveness, restlessness and hyperactivity.
Born either just before or after the cut-off date for the first year of school. Being up to 12 months younger than the oldest children in the class can mean that a child’s inattention or misbehaviour can be mistaken for hyperactivity by teaching staff.
Read moreOther common misdiagnoses:
Differentiating between the shared symptoms of ADHD and bipolar mood disorder can be extremely difficult and could also lead to a misdiagnosis.
ADHD affects attention and behaviour - inattention, distractibility, impulsiveness, and/or physical restlessness.
Bipolar disorder primarily affects mood - exaggerated shifts in mood, energy, thinking, and behaviour—from manic highs to extreme, depressive lows.
The causes of behaviour in young children can be complicated. Often they display phases where they are restless or inattentive, which is completely normal and does not necessarily mean your child has ADHD.
Where there have been concerns raised over behaviour that appears to be different to most children of their age, a doctor may not have made a thorough enough assessment. A misdiagnosis may have also led to a wrongly prescribed medication.
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