A correct diagnosis is three-fourths the remedy.
If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.
If you don't define the problem you'll never reach a painful solution.
The reasons asthma doesn't affect my work or play is that I had accurate diagnostics and follow treatment regimens closely. It's when someone thinks they're fine and that they don't need help that they usually get in trouble.
One of the first things we teach medical students is to listen to the patient by taking a careful medical history. Ninety percent of the time, you can arrive at an uncannily accurate diagnosis by paying close attention, using physical examination and sophisticated lab test to confirm your hunch (and to increase the bill to the insurance company).
To diagnose and treat a brain disorder accurately, it would be necessary to look at the brain directly. Looking at behavior alone can miss a vital piece of the puzzle and provide an incomplete, or even a misleading, picture of the child's problems.
Funding that is focused on the ability to diagnose diseases precisely will just have inestimable value because that's the gate through which precision medicine has to go. Unless you can diagnose the disease precisely, care has to remain in the hands of expensive institutions and expensive caregivers.
Generally, you cannot solve a problem without defining the problem completely.
I know what's it's like to grow up with ADHD and how important it is for parents, caregivers and patients, to have access to accurate information.
If you misdiagnose, if you misdiagnose anything, whether it's a serious disease or a international geopolitical threat, you will never solve it.
