Is Brain Scan Testing Reliable?
Brain Scan...many experts feel that on the whole, SPECT and other technologies utilizing neuro-imaging are tools of the future. There are others though who believe these high-tech lab test (SPECT and QEEG) will revoltionize the way ADHD and ADD is diagnosed and treated.
Making a definitive diagnosis of ADHD and ADD can sometimes be difficult for a doctor. Usually a doctor can tell whether a child is ADD by just observing his behavior and asking parents and teachers to describe his attention or other problems. There are other times though when this just isn’t enough for a diagnosis. When this happens and the doctor is just not sure, usually he'll order more additional standard diagnostic tests.
There are a handful of ADHD doctors who have now begun to offer SPECT testing (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) and also QEEG (Quantitative Electro-encephalography).
These tests measure brain wave activity. Although neuro-imaging doesn’t give you a diagnosis, ,,,some doctors believe these tests are needed for a full evaluation. Other doctors also believe by using the data from the qEEG test and comparing it to a database from thousands of drug trials they can better predict which ADD medication is best for a particular patient.
These neuro-imaging technologies definitely have their skeptics and believers. Many experts say the findings of some doctors using these techniques have not been made available for the scrutiny of the scientific community and therefore have not been duplicated by the research of others. This duplication is a basic criterion of scientific validity. A few mainstream doctors give the SPECT only a qualified approval using it only about 1 or 2 percent of the time and then only for patients involving head injury, a prior seizure disorder, or an infectious disease that may have damaged the brain.
These same doctors feel that a scan may offer a few clues as to what is going on with an ADD ADHD brain
...but that as a whole these neuro-imaging technologies are tools of the future. They still need to be understood more but hold a great deal of promise for the future in diagnostic and treatment implications. The mainstream doctors seem to be more supportive of the QEEG testing than for SPECT. Some feel that the QEEG is the better of the two for use in confirming a diagnosis and in determining whether mediation treatment can be effective. It is also felt that QEEG can help sort out con-existing conditions that look like ADD. It has been determined that kids with ADD ADHD have very specific QEEG patterns and these doctors feel it’s a much more accurate way of making a diagnosis than just looking at symptoms. These same doctors feel though that more research is needed for its application to determine and choosing which medications to use.
The Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend any lab tests for ADD ADHD
This includes both the SPECT and QEEG. Also, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry is skeptical of benefits of these tests. They feel that SPECT of qEEG has been be that helpful for either proven to a diagnosis or ADD treatment. So either way you have the skeptics and the believers in this new field of neuroimaging and it is up to you to decide what you is feel best for yourself and your child.
