posted 04-06-2006 04:49 AM            

The diagnosis may not have been accurate, or it may simply no longer be emphasized for your subject. It seems to be most commonly employed with children. With adults, the individual is usually regarded as having some non-specific chronic mental illness (psychotic disorder NOS) or non-specific developmental disability.

It would be interesting to see a current multi-axial diagnosis - with GAF scores.

How well (independently) does your subject function? Does he work? Did he complete school?

Another possibility is that the subject could have FAE (fetal alcohol effects) - a less dramatic but similar pattern of teratogenic dysfunction.

Persons with FAS / FAE are know to have serious disruptions in their prefrontal cortex and other locations in the brain. There judgement is appallingly bad, and they tend not to learn from experience. Of course, behavioral self control, inhibition, impulsivity, concentration, attention, learning, problem solving, and emotional lability/disregulation are all prominent concerns.

Depending on the degree of impairment, and the objectives of testing, you might decide whether or not to pursue the test.

I hate to ask, but... does your subject take medications? If so, what kind? The types of medication found effective may be secondarily informative about the type of disfunction the subject manifests, and may sometimes tell us what to anticipate in the test data.

r

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