According to a small-scale, in-office, observational study, psychiatrists and parents have significantly different perceptions of the importance of pediatric ADHD and psychiatric comorbidities, particularly regarding the patients' most concerning behavior.
The study, which utilized accepted sociolinguistic methodologies to evaluate the tone, content and structure of in-office visits, was presented recently at the 20th annual U.S. Psychiatric and Mental Health Congress (USPMHC).
“We found that among the psychiatrists and parents studied, 78 percent provided different responses when asked about the patient's ‘most concerning behavior,'” said Robert Findling, M.D., lead author and professor of psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University and director of the division of child and adolescent psychiatry at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. “There was a notable incidence of psychiatrist/parent misalignment regarding the patients' most concerning behaviors, including aggression and defiance.”