Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine ADD/ADHD Information The CARITHERS  Pediatric Group Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine New Patients We thank you for your confidence in our practice and the trust you place in us with your children. Our office would like to expedite the evaluation of inattention or school difficulties for your child. The providers want to work with you to ensure your child is meeting his or her full potential in school.  To make this evaluation more smooth and accurate, we are requesting you follow these instructions prior to your visit: 1. Please click on these links to download and fill out the Vanderbilt questionnaires (one for the parents and two separate questionnaires for two teachers who know your child’s classroom behaviors best). Everyone should fill the forms out separately.  Please have these filled out prior to the first office visit, and bring them to your visit. 2. Please click on this link and complete the “ADD/ADHD Medical History” sheet. Bring to your visit. 3. Absolutely arrive on-time to your visit. It takes a lot of time to adequately assess your child. A late-comer to an ADD/ADHD visit not only robs your child of necessary time but also affects all the children scheduled after yours. 4. Please try not to bring other children to your child’s ADD/ADHD visit. Other children often distract from the focus needed during the visit. 5. Avoid reading too much right now about ADD/ADHD. It might possibly bias your response to the ADD/ADHD scales. We will gladly direct you to reading material on ADD/ADHD should your child receive this diagnosis. 6. Consider psychoeducational evaluation prior to your vist.  Either a psychoeducational evaluation by a licensed psychologist or a complete evaluation done by the school system can be very helpful to diagnosing the reason for your child’s school difficulties.  Not all children that the teacher identifies as “inattentive” have Attention Deficit Disorder of Childhood. Some children have learning processing disorders (such as dyslexia) or other psychological disorders (such as depression or anxiety) which result in school difficulties. A thorough psychoeducational evaluation helps us ensure we are making the correct diagnosis for your child. Please note: We suggest you call your insurance carrier to inquire about whether or not psychological services are covered and which pediatric psychologists are covered by your insurance plan. If you have questions about any of this information, please contact our phone nurse during regular business hours for clarification. Follow-up Visits New Patients Follow-up Visit We require close follow-up of your child with ADD/ADHD to review his/her progress. To make these follow-up visits as helpful as possible, we have several things to share with you prior to these appointments: 1. We strongly recommend that you continue your child’s ADD/ADHD care with the same physician—usually the one who originally diagnosed the ADD/ADHD or the one who has seen you most for this condition. If we have not scheduled your appointment with this physician, please call and allow us to re-schedule to better help your child. 2. Please click on these links to download and fill out the follow-up Vanderbilt questionnaires  (one for the parents and two separate questionnaires for two teachers who know your child’s classroom behaviors best). Please have each parent and teacher complete them separately one week prior to all your follow-up appointments for review with the doctor.  Please complete form describing how your child is while on medicine.  We will not be able to adequately assess your child’s progress without the forms. We may have to re-schedule the appointment if they are not available at the time of the visit. 3. Please click on this link to download and complete the “ADD/ADHD Follow-up Visit” sheet and bring to your appointment. 4. As a reminder, refills on ADD/ADHD medications require a 7-day notification. We do this to insure your doctor will be the one reviewing and signing your refill request. This will result in better ongoing care of your child. 5. In order to effectively monitor your child’s condition and maximize his or her medical therapy, we require yearly physical examinations, as well as intermittent office visits to evaluate progress while on medication.  The frequency of these visits depends on the diagnosis, as well as on the prescribed medication.  In accordance with insurance guidelines and current quality standards, Carithers Pediatric Group requires medication-monitoring office visits every six months for patients who are prescribed controlled substances. One of these visits may be combined with a complete physical each year. Patients requiring frequent prescription adjustments may need to be seen more often.