A majority of my articles focus on a specific medical problem, including the pathophysiology, disease process, signs, symptoms and treatment. This is because I practice evidence-based medicine–which means that what I do on a daily basis is founded on medical literature and current recommended practice guidelines.
Those guidelines are constantly evolving with advances in science. The treatment I may have recommended six months ago, can be different from what I would advise today. Thus, keeping abreast of the science of medical practice is important in providing the best possible care. But, emotion and empathy are just as important. It is my hope that I am able to provide emotional support during a time of crisis that parallels the quality of my medical care.
Recently, I was involved in a case that has had a tremendous emotional impact on me and my staff. In nearly 20 years of practice, I have not experienced such a situation. Let me share some of the details.
When we think of forgetfulness or lack of focus, we usually write that off to either the young or the old. But there might be a clinical diagnosis for adults who suffer from these same aliments combined with the fidgets, lack of motivation, procrastination and sporadic memory loss. It’s called Adult Attention Deficit Disorder or Adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Yes, we all have brief episodes of these symptoms, but for those that are plagued with these characteristics, their lives are miserable, particularly when not diagnosed. So before you call your co-worker who never seems to be able to complete projects on time or continually forgets about appointments a “scatterbrain” or “clueless,” you may want to look into what exactly ADD is.
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