The New York Times has an interesting article on convergence insufficiency and how it is frequently misdiagnosed as attention deficit disorder.

Excerpt:

Dr. David Granet, a professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, said: “Everyone is familiar with A.D.H.D. and A.D.D., but not with eye problems, especially not with convergence insufficiency. But we don’t want to send kids for remedial reading and education efforts if they have an eye problem. This should be part of the protocol for eye doctors.”

In 2005, Dr. Granet studied 266 patients with convergence insufficiency. Nearly 10 percent also had diagnoses of attention deficit or hyperactivity — three times that of the general population. The reverse also proved true: examining the hospital records of 1,700 children with A.D.H.D., Dr. Granet and colleagues found that 16 percent also had convergence insufficiency, three times the normal rate.

“When five of the symptoms of A.D.H.D. overlap with C.I.,” he said, “how can you not step back and say, Wait a minute?”

– Laura Novak in Not Autistic or Hyperactive. Just Seeing Double at Times, New York Times, 11 September 2007

Might convergence insufficiency be an issue for adult executives, and might an adult with C.I. have an ADD/ADHD misdiagnosis — either as a child or as an adult? The New York Times article only discusses C.I. cases in children; however, C.I. is known to exist in adults. Given that C.I. is a relatively uncommon diagnosis, it’s not unreasonable to think that some adults diagnosed with ADD/ADHD may actually have C.I., instead.

In any case, the need for a careful and accurate diagnosis of ADD/ADHD is increasingly obvious. ADD/ADHD often comes with co-morbid conditions (anxiety, depression, etc.). And more opportunities for mis-diagnosis (e.g., convergence insufficiency as ADD/ADHD or vice versa) seem to keep appearing.

Choose a good doctor. Ask many questions. Keep looking if you don’t feel confident about your first results.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 at 7:37 pm and is filed under In the News, Reference -- ADD general. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.