Skip to main content

Which six months?

Submitted by an LD OnLine user on

This is a serious question:

Many of the attempts to diagnose ADD mention periods of six months or more, but fails to specify which six months. Is it January through June, being three or four days shorter than July through December? Or perhaps Feburary, April, June, September, November and any other month except the month Daylight Savings Time ends if applicable, as that month is an hour longer.

What about if the so called symptoms last only 5 months and 27 days? What makes that just a case of a bad child and terrible parents? But three or four more days and drugs (that without a prescription even a tiny amount will send you to jail for a long time) is warranted, and again which months?

Which is it? Again, I am _very_ serious.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 06/22/2004 - 9:34 PM

Permalink

Excellent question! I have wondered the same thing! I picked one month out of each year of my child’s life. He is six so the “six month rule” worked beautifully for us. I think you are thinking about this too hard. I believe it is just “six months”. I don’t think you need to worry about the actual number of days. I hope this helps!

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 06/28/2004 - 2:09 PM

Permalink

It usually refers to the six months leading up to the clinical examination by the doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, etc. Secton A of the ADHD section of the DSM uses the phrase “have persisted for at least 6 months.”

JT

Back to Top