So now he is gifted?!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-01-2005
So now he is gifted?!
25
Fri, 02-24-2006 - 3:24pm

Hi all,

I've had an emotional roller coaster of a week. On Monday the behavior therapist said he isn't qualified to dx Ethan because he is too 'complicated'. He mentioned a possible thought disorder and said he might benefit from a psychiatrist and RX respiridal (?sp) He was going to talk to ped, but never did and never called me as promised, either.

Yesterday I met with the school psychologist and also the speech teacher who keeps tabs on Ethan in class. They both said that Ethan is thriving in school, is popular and happy and the kids do not have a problem at this point with his ummm 'unique' conversations. He is obedient and has no meltdowns at school (saves those for me :^) although he is improving at home again, too. They were very reluctant to think of Ethan on RX with a dx of schizophrenia--.

Then the psychologist asked if we had ever considerd the possibility that Ethan might be gifted. (Hey, what mom hasn't! :^) She said with his music and art abilities it is possible that he is gifted and that might account for some of his conversations. You can have a normal conversation with Ethan and then he goes off to very imaginitive thought. He can easily be brought back tho, which really makes me skeptical of the schizophrenia possibility.

At this point we are going to stay the course and not go to a psychiatrist or even pursue a dx. Does this sound reasonable? So far he has seen two psychologists and a Ped and none of them knows quite what to make of Ethan. He is reading and writing and even starting to do math in his head. He covers 25 papers a day with his drawings--then he brings them to us to tell the stories that go with the pics. He is coming out of the emotional turmoil he was in a few weeks ago and is becoming my happy little boy again.

Any suggestions on what else to pursue?

TIA!
Debbi

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Thu, 03-02-2006 - 5:09pm

Happy Birthday Debbi!

I don't have anything to contribute to this thread.....but it has been fascinating to read.....interesting.

Christie

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Fri, 03-03-2006 - 10:11am
Thanks for your response. No, it's not your fault that I'm freaking out. It's mine for always waiting for that shoe to drop (ever since I got pregnant with our first child) since I know the family's medical history. Despite my reaction, I'm truly grateful for info since it does prepare me to better accept/deal with diagnosis once I receive it (if ever -- I have a gut feeling based on family history/similarities that there's a high likelihood they will develop schizo, tho' I'm doing everything I know to provide them coping mechanisms to decrease that potential). FYI, NLD is non-verbal learning disorder. A simplistic explanation is that it's Asperger's without the same degree of fixation/repetitive behaviors. This whole thread has been very educational. I had no idea that autism spectrum disorders were so prevelent. It's very sad that there is such a high number of children/families suffering yet so little info/support available!
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Fri, 03-03-2006 - 11:55am
I understand. Still, I apologize for barging in like that. I am sure you are doing a great job for your kids. I wish you and them all the best and good health now and in future. Thanks for the NLD explanation.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 03-05-2006 - 6:23am

BTW, this whole discussion made me start reading about schizophrenia again. I came across the following, which I thought was very interesting and hopeful for those of us with a family history of this disease:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/uops-pr110705.php

Public release date: 7-Nov-2005

Contact: Susanne Hartman
susanne.hartman@uphs.upenn.edu
215-349-5964
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Penn researchers utilize MRI for early diagnosis of schizophrenia

New way of using MRI may show us what the naked eye cannot see

(Philadelphia, PA) - Researchers may have discovered a new way that may ultimately assist in the early diagnosis of schizophrenia - by utilizing MRI to study the patient's brain. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS) looked for subtle brain abnormalities that cannot be seen by the human eye. A study examined the entire brain, looking at distributed patterns of abnormalities rather than differences in specific regions of the brain.
"In this study, we used high-dimensional shape transformations in which we compared a brain image with a template of a normal brain. Through this comparison, we then determined where and how the patient's brain differed from healthy controls," explained Christos Davatzikos, PhD, Director of the Section of Biomedical Image Analysis in the Department of Radiology at Penn. "These methods are able to identify abnormalities that could not be detected by human inspection of the images created via MRI And, up until now, structural MRI has typically been used to diagnose physical anomalies like stroke or tumors, but it has not been helpful for diagnosis of psychiatric diseases."

Davatzikos says, "MRI produces images which are traditionally read mostly by radiologists. Now, we can do a quantitative reading of these images - bringing out information that is not obvious to the eye; one can think of computer readings as computational scanners. It's a second level that says 'analyze this image and produce another image that highlights subtle abnormalities in the brain.' This is fundamentally new information now that we can use for a larger spectrum of diseases and look for early diagnosis and prevention - such as the teen at risk for developing schizophrenia."

The results of the study demonstrate that sophisticated computational analysis methods can find unique structural brain characteristics in schizophrenia patients, with a predictive accuracy of more than 83%. Recently, Davatzikos and his group announced that further analysis of this data with even more sophisticated classification methods achieved a 91% predictive accuracy for diagnosis of schizophrenia via MRI (MICCAI 2005 meeting, Palm Springs, CA).

"This is the first time this level of predictive power of MRI for classification of schizophrenia is demonstrated in a study of this magnitude," adds Davatzikos. "This tells us there are unique patterns we can use and explore when we want to diagnose patients with schizophrenia. However, the biggest value for this new diagnostic tool will be for early detection before clinical manifestation of the disease. For this, we will need to examine teenagers at risk."

Schizophrenia commonly presents in late adolescence or early adulthood thereby disrupting normal development and attainment of education and achieving independence. "If the disease can be detected early, intervention can ameliorate its potential effects. For example, brain systems implicated in schizophrenia include those required for learning and memory. Knowing that these systems have reduced volume in an individual could justify cognitive remediation efforts that will palliate the deficits and allow better adaptation," said Raquel Gur, MD, PhD, Director of the Schizophrenia Center with the Department of Psychiatry at UPHS, who performed the studies supported by NIMH.

Davatzikos further explains, "If you can diagnose schizophrenia early, utilizing MRI along with other tools like genetic disposition, behavioral profiles and functional imaging -- before a patient actually develops the disease -- we can try to delay the onset of the disease and hopefully have a better outcome for the rest of their life."

"Despite the high accuracy with the MRI classified patients and healthy controls, the diagnosis of schizophrenia is based on the clinical presentation," says Gur. "However, it is time for mental health professionals to think of neuroimaging as an important diagnostic tool that merits further research."

###
The results of this study are published in the November 2005 issue of the "JAMA - Archives of General Psychiatry." You will be able to access it on-line at: http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/ (The article is titled "Whole-Brain Morphometric Study of Schizophrenia Revealing a Spatially Complex Set of Focal Abnormalities").

Editor's Notes: To schedule an interview with Dr. Christos Davatzikos, the principal investigator of the study, please contact Susanne Hartman at 215-349-5964 or susanne.hartman@uphs.upenn.edu.

The name of this study is "Computer-Based Detection of Complex Patterns of Brain Abnormality in Schizophrenia, Using MRI."

NIMH grants funding supported this study.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Sun, 03-05-2006 - 8:58pm
Interesting. I'd love to participate as part of that study, but I guess it'll be awhile 'til it's available to the average Joe. At least it's something to keep our eyes and ears open for. Thanks.

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