Pediatric psychiatrists who can diagnose and treat ADHD in 6 y o
Hi BPN community,
Our 6 year old was tested by the school, and her Connors-3 comes back with similar scores as someone with ADHD primarily inattentive (ADHD runs in my family so not a huge surprise). Our pediatrician is recommending a developmental pediatrician who charges $5000, and insurance (Blue Cross) won't indicate whether they'd will reimburse for this. Can anyone recommend a pediatric psychiatrist in the Berkeley/Oakland/Walnut Creek areas that can diagnose and provide ongoing treatment?
Many, many thanks!
Apr 26, 2018
Parent Replies
Have you tried eliminating sugar and wheat?
no, I am not a nut. I have seen amazing changes.
Also, watch the Drs on Chanel 9 talking about similar issues. Physicians in our area call themselves Consilting Drs. Serious results.
Good luck.
Check out the organization called BACA, Bay Area Children’s Association. They have pediatric psychiatrists. If they accept your insurance it is worth making the trip to Oakland.
otherwise there are a couple at children’s Bos. We really preferred BACA, it then our insurance changed. Good luck.
Your primary pediatrician won’t diagnose and treat ADHD? I would recommend finding another primary pediatrician instead of hiring an expensive pediatric psychiatrist. ADHD is fairly common, and physicians can write scripts for it. If your kid has multiple issues, such as ADHD, autism, and/or early mental illness then I can understand the need for a specialist to diagnose and treat your child. For just ADHD, I’m having a hard time understanding the need for such expensive diagnostics. I have a kid with ADHD and several learning disabilities, and we are very happy with our pediatrician’s care.
Dr. Brad Engwald (berkeley) is supposed to be great, although last time I checked (several months ago) his practice was full. Best of luck.
I haven't heard of getting an ADHD diagnosis from a pediatric psychiatrist. Usually they are the ones who prescribe and adjust the meds as needed after you already have the diagnosis. Two of my three kids met with developmental pediatricians for an evaluation for ADD and it didn't cost $5000. That sounds more like a neuropsychologist evaluation - 5K is in the range of what that costs, which by the way is very detailed and thorough - we just did one for our high schooler who's had an ADD diagnosis since 3rd grade. He got his original diagnosis from a dev. pedi., and it has been all we've needed for accommodations throughout his school years. But he needed a recent neuropsych evaluation to request accommodations for ACT/SAT. The neuropsych's report was very interesting, though not really that surprising, and I can't say we'd have done things differently had we gotten it in 3rd grade. But ... if you are pretty sure your kid has ADHD, and you don't need to rule out other stuff like dyslexia or other learning disabilities, then you can get the diagnosis from a pediatrician. ADHD is a medical diagnosis (brain chemistry) not a psychological condition, so it's common for MDs to make the diagnosis. Some pediatricians know a lot about ADHD, others will want to refer you to a developmental pediatrician who sees a lot of kids with ADHD. Our pediatricians referred out. I'm not saying it's cheap to go to a dev. pedi, but our experience was ~5 hours including parent interviews at around $300/hour. Our insurance did cover the dev. pedi. for the first kid, and we paid out of pocket for the 2nd kid because we wanted to go to a different dev. pedi. than our insurance would pay for. We really liked Mariana Eraklis in Orinda.
I highly recommend Dr Marianna Eraklis in Orinda for diagnosis and treatment. She is worth the trip through the tunnel.