Neuro or Neuropsych testing while on ADHD medication

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RedwoodCat
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Age: 60
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Location: Santa Rosa, California

31 May 2013, 12:48 pm

I have Aspergers/ADHD with symptoms of progressively worsening brain damage. I take 54mg Concerta which allows me to hold a conversation, drive a car, etc, none of which I can do without ADHD med as of about 1.5 years ago. Never used it before that. I am trying to get the brain damage part figured out, but the HMO neurologist I just saw dismissed the abnormalities in my brain MRI (which indicated the possibility of a previous minor stroke) because I could (barely) do all the simple tests he tried on me, and because I'm "only" 48. I told him that I would not be able to do that without Concerta, and a couple of years ago I would have been able to do the tests just fine without ADHD meds and with much greater ease. He said it doesn't matter, there is nothing wrong with me. That is contrary to what several professionals outside the HMO has been telling me.

So now I have neuropsychology testing via my HMO coming up in a couple of months, and I am wondering just what effect the Concerta will have on the accuracy of the results. Again, this is something I can't get them to comment on. I tried calling a private clinic that works with these issues, and they say they need their patients to be off ADHD meds for at least 4 days before coming in, but they don't have any inpatient services or anything for people that can't function with out it, so I don't see how they could help, but now I am even more suspicious about doctors that don't take that into consideration.

Has anyone here had any experience with this? Does anyone have any idea how the use of ADHD meds are factored into the results of brain functioning tests? Does anyone know of a clinic that helps patients get off psych meds long enough to do testing and see what's really going on? I also take Paxil and Valium for 24/7 physical panic symptoms (without any associated thoughts or triggers), so that further muddles things.

Thanks for your help,
Cat


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animalcrackers
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31 May 2013, 1:06 pm

I was taking ADHD meds when I went through an ASD assessment...I think it just made it impossible for me to be appropriately tested for ADHD. In the report I got about my autism diagnosis, there was a note about the fact that I was on medication for ADHD as part of the discussion about whether or not I seemed to have ADHD.


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