A.D.H.D. diagnoses on the rise According to data collected by the Centers for Disease Control and analyzed by “The New York Times,” the number of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is increasing, with a 53 percent jump in the past decade. NBC’s Robert Bazell reports. http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/51398164
BANNOCKBURN, IL--(Marketwire - Nov 13, 2012) - Obesity is a common problem regularly treated by registered dietitians at Portrait Health Centers, but conditions that result in severe and life threatening weight loss like anorexia nervosa can be even more challenging to both the patient and the professional. The nutrition team at Portrait Health Centers has observed that patients suffering with anorexia nervosa often do well in a hospital setting, but fail to thrive outside the inpatient environment. One reason is hospitals supervise mealtimes where the patient is required to finish the meal. In a recent pilot program, Portrait Health registered dietitians opened their first small café and invited patients with anorexia to have lunch with a dietitian, creating the Portrait Health Bistro™. Portrait Health registered dietitian, Cathy Goldufsky, explains, "The Portrait Health Bistro™ combines the best elements of treatment for these patients. Evaluation of the patient and creation of a unique meal plan provide individualized structure for each patient. Working with food is often difficult for these patients so making the lunch is an important step. Eating under the guidance and support of a registered dietitian provides education and reinforces the need to finish each meal." Henry Warner, Portrait Health President, explains, "A customized meal plan is prepared by the dietitian for each patient and covers all meals for the week. The patient gets the experience of making lunch and then eating in a friendly, supportive environment under the direction of a Portrait Health registered dietitian." Patients attend from one to five days per week. To learn more about attending a Portrait Health Bistro™ lunch program, contact Jeremy Warner, VP at 847-236-0943 X14 or jwarner@portraithealthcenters.com or visit ww.portraithealthcenters.com/bistro.
Portrait Health Centers announced today its plan to open the first Woodside Wellness Institute. Portrait Health Centers' clinical team believes that the Woodside Wellness Model, which focuses on providing strength-based, client-centered clinical care using contemporary, effective and scientifically accepted methods, will complement Portrait Health's self-study app development course in the diagnosis and treatment of depression and anxiety in teenagers and young adults.
At Portrait Health Centers, one of the social stressors that we investigate as causes for withdrawn and distracted behaviors is bullying. In all cases of suspected ADHD inattentive type, a comprehensive review of the social stressors must be considered as an underlying cause for symptoms that may appear to be preoccupation with other matters. Bullying is more common today than ever before, with so many means to bully using social media. Below is a report on how bullying may lead children to self-harm, as reported in the British Medical Journal. Bullying Tied to Self-Harm in Young Adolescents Children who are bullied frequently might be more likely to engage in self-harm behaviors, according to a BMJstudy. The study included more than 2000 children in the U.K. Mothers were asked whether their children had been bullied when the children were aged 7 and 10 years, and the children were asked about being bullied when they were age 12. In addition, when the children were 12, mothers were asked if their children had engaged in self-harm. Overall, 3% of the children had self-harmed, and more than half of these had been bullied often. After adjustment for confounders (e.g., early mental health problems), self-harm remained significantly associated with bullying. Among bullied children, those who self-harmed were more likely to have a family member who had committed suicide, to have been maltreated by an adult, or to have mental health problems than those who did not self-harm. BMJ article Portrait Health Centers has a team of Clinical Psychologists who are specially trained to identify underlying causes of harmful behaviors. If you suspect your child is resorting to these behaviors as a way to relieve the anxiety associated with bullying or other harassment, please call us today or make an appointment by clicking the SCHEDULE NOW link below.
Learn a New Skill, and Channel your Creativity and Energy into a Fun and Rewarding Hobby and Career
 How often have you wondered, “…If only I could find a way to channel all of this excess energy and creativity into something meaningful…”? Here is one way to do just that, and you will be having fun and generating meaningful income in the process. Consider learning the skills to become a certified developer of applications for smart phones and tablets. App developers are at the top of the demands for new employees of many of the major Fortune 500 companies. Since 2007, more than 475,000 new jobs have been created in this field, and for excellent reason – over 200 million people use a smart phone or computer tablet and use apps every day. It seems as though this expanding world of app development has been created specifically for adults with ADHD. Creativity comes naturally to those with ADHD, who are also gifted with a tireless level energy. Developing smartphone apps is actually therapeutic, converting artistic expression into helpful and entertaining applications in hundreds of areas. ADHD adults who have learned the skills of app development have expressed a newfound outlook on life, and report better management and interpersonal skills. Through a special program developed by Portrait Health Publishing, adults who possess ideas for apps could learn how to develop and market their apps in a few short weeks. The skills learned through this program will help you to learn organizational skills and project management tactics that apply to everyday life. Just basic computer understanding is required. Click on the CLASSES Tab at www.portraithealthpublishing.com for more information about this program, one that ADHD coaches are recommending to their clients.
Staying on the topic of migraines in children, today we look at a rather serious topic – how migraine could go undetected in young children. For those of us who face the torment of migraine headaches, it may be hard to believe that at any age where communication is possible that one would not know the source of their ailment. See if this scenario sounds familiar to you, as it is one that plays out thousands of times every day. Little Johnny wakes up and complains that his stomach hurts. He looks a bit tired and is nothing like his energetic self. You think that he is probably nervous about his spelling test or the new material he is struggling with in Math. He only picks at his breakfast and drinks his milk, and with your encouragement heads off to school. On the hot and fume-ridden school bus, he continues to feel nauseated. By the time he arrives at school, he is really feeling sick to his stomach. You get that dreaded call by mid-morning, that Johnny is in the nurse’s office and has thrown up on his way to the bathroom. You think to yourself, it must be the flu, since you heard that your friend’s kids had the flu last week. You pick him up from school, and he squints all the way home complaining about how bright the sunlight is. He gets home, vomits one more time, and heads to bed without your need for encouragement. Later that afternoon he arises, energetic and hungry. You think, this is the strangest stomach flu you’ve ever seen. While Johnny NEVER once indicated that he had a pain in his head, he was experiencing a migraine event. In many children, nausea is the dominant symptom of migraine, and while a headache may be present, it is not what is causing the most immediate concern to the child – vomiting is. Johnny provided other key clues as to his condition. Lack of appetite, and intolerance to heat, odors, and motion are also key symptoms. Finally, even after the relief from vomiting, the intolerance to light is a classic migraine symptom. Other clues are the desire to sleep, and the tendency to awake with an immediate need for food. If this sounds familiar to you, it may be time to discuss with your pediatrician the need for an evaluation for migraine. You could see how easily that migraine could be overlooked, or mistakenas anxiety, foodborne illness, the flu, or as we discussed earlier, symptoms that look a lot like the inattentive form of ADHD. With children, prevention remains the top form of managing migraines, as over-the-counter pain medications are not well-tolerated in young children, nor are recommended in most cases. Understanding the many possible triggers of a migraine event could be challenging. We recommend becoming familiar with the triggers through the following electronic applications, available in most smart phone formats, pads and tablets. We also suggest that you read “What If It’s Migraine? Treatments and Remedies”, available through Portrait Health Publishing and wherever eBooks are sold. Click Here For DetailsContinue to follow our posts on the topic, and share with us your stories and successful remedies of how you have confronted migraine in your household.
 A Message from our Healthcare Director, Dr. Jack Maggiore: Our followers know well of the statistics that we post of the 40% misdiagnosis rate of ADHD, as reported by the University of Notre Dame in 2010, and again by Portrait Health Centers in late 2011. One of the more overlooked conditions that mimics the symptoms of ADHD, inattentive type, is a sleep disorder. Lack of quality, restorative sleep directly contributes to what appears as lack of interest, daydreaming, inattention, and poor comprehension, in the classroom, as well as in the workplace. Not too surprisingly, the same individuals who are often misidentified and misdiagnosed as having ADHD, and the same people who have a tendency for migraine headaches. One of the more common triggers for a debilitating migraine event is the lack of sleep. The reason that inadequate sleep leads to a migraine headache is thought to be related to the predisposition of these individuals to have a period of hypertension in an attempt to keep the brain alert and the body awake in the face of physical and mental exhaustion. Unfortunately, this increase in blood pressure leads to the body’s response to reduce the blood pressure by dilating the blood vessels in the head, a process called vasodilation. Vasodilation leads to localized inflammation, or swelling, which causes severe pain, commonly experienced as an intense headache in the more than 30-million Americans with the disorder called migraine. It is not likely that those with migraine have an increased tendency for true ADHD, and there is not sufficient evidence that those with true ADHD are more prone to having the syndrome known as migraine. However, for many individuals with ADHD being treated with a stimulant medication, any “vacation” from these drugs, or a change in the dose of the stimulant medication may serve as a trigger to a migraine headache. Also, for those who are prescribed the blood-pressure-lowering medication Strattera® to control the symptoms of ADHD, one of the unanticipated benefits of this medication may be a decrease in the number of migraine headaches due to the lowering of blood pressure, a possible initiator in the migraine pathway. Any medication that has either stimulant or sedative properties is likely to cause a change in sleep patterns, which, as we indicated, is a trigger for migraine headaches. It is important that you discuss any change in sleep with your doctor, especially if you see that headaches are occurring with this change. Do not underestimate the benefits of a good night’s sleep. A comprehensive sleep evaluation is valuable for many reasons related to ADHD symptoms, migraine, as well as problems with weight management, diabetes, stress, and heart conditions. Sleep is essential for much more than just an opportunity to recharge our inner battery, it is at the heart of a number of our hormone cycles, metabolism, and mental health. Contact our Nurse Navigatorat (847) 868-3435 today to discuss how your migraine headaches and ADHD tendencies may be related to a sleep disorder. Visit us at www.portraithealthcenters.com. To schedule an appointment online, simply click on the button below:
For a high school teen with ADD/ADHD, social anxiety turns a lunch break into a battleground.  It’s the day after my therapy-induced epiphany about my attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) and social anxiety. But back at the high school lunch posse, little has changed. It’s a lovely spring day and my group -- mine not because they have any claim to me or I to them but because they mostly leave me be -- has decided to sit in the cafeteria’s outdoor courtyard for the first time since autumn. Of course, no one has informed me of that. But after 20 minutes of stumbling vainly around the indoor cafeteria whilst precariously balancing my overburdened food tray, I am able to put it together. My anxiety-addled ADD/ADHD mind is whirring as I approach them. I have a routine when we sit at the indoor table. There is always one seat left open for me. It is in the far corner of the long, rectangular lunch table. There, in this little niche, I’m allowed to sit quietly with my head down, and I’m granted refuge from the most direct and cutting mockery. Although mockery is par for the course for such a gawky, pasty-skinned wallflower as myself, no one lavishes upon me hostile, vaguely disgusted remarks as generously as Liz, the girl whose own appearances are meticulously groomed -- complete with a spray-on tan, cover-up, and thick blue swooshes of eye shadow. (Somehow, her makeup-facilitated ruse passes her off as pretty while I'm the one who is so worried about fitting in that I haven't made eye contact with anyone in a year.) The first day I’d sat with this clique, on the first lunch hour of sophomore year, I had innocently grabbed a seat that happened to be next to Liz. She welcomed me by waving over her brawny boy-toy Stephen who'd been sitting comfortably across from her just moments earlier. “Hey ... uh, sorry man," he said to me. "This seat isn’t for you. I forgot that I sit here.” “There’s no way I could’ve stomached my lunch with that much awkwardness next to me,” was Liz's not even hushed reply. Though comically clannish in retrospect, this social assault hit my sophomore self like shell shock. First I refused to make eye contact with Stephen and Liz, then anyone at the table, and eventually anyone but my parents. Ever since this first day, my sophomore self begins to imagine their probing eyes scrutinizing me -- quivering knees, watering eyes, and all. It's all I can do to shovel my plate of macaroni and cheese down my tight throat every day. Though Stephen played a part in the assault that nearly destroyed me, over the course of sophomore year, I learned to be grateful for the barrier that his bulky maroon sweatshirt places between me and Liz. That sweatshirt -- along with Stephen’s complete indifference to my presence -- has been my sanctuary all winter. He’s granted me the privilege of being allowed to duck my head (bashfully) behind his bulky mass, scarf down my food, and scamper out of the cafeteria unnoticed and unharassed. Out in the courtyard on this lovely spring day, I’m naked without Stephen’s protection. Awful things could happen. What if I have to sit next to Liz? When I arrive at the posse’s headquarters, everyone's all circled up tightly: There isn't a single opening for me to wedge myself inside of, there isn't a rectangular table with a quiet corner for Carl. If I want to sit down, I’ll have to ask someone to move. Which, of course, I don't do, given my yearlong strike against making eye contact with anyone (except my parents and now my therapist, all of whom at least understand some of my ADD/ADHD ways). Like a stalking cheetah, I noiselessly circle the crew -- too busy in their own world of conversation to see me -- searching for something vaguely resembling a space to sit. And I find one: a two-foot gap where I have a shot at wedging my tray inside, craning my neck into the group’s circle, and pretending I have friends. There's only one problem with the space: The sprawling expanse of my gangly body is now directly behind Liz’s Abercrombie-adorned torso. I close my eyes and pray quietly that in this peaceful patch of earth I can eat my lunch unnoticed. I ease myself into the space and wait for the volley of muskets the firing squad could shoot at me any minute. When I feel the reliable thump of my tray against that two-foot space of ground and no one says anything, I think I am safe. Then, just as I get situated, I see Liz’s blond head twist towards me. She’s standing up and beginning to turn around. She must be trying to get out of the circle and walk to class. As her blue, mascara-lined eyes meet mine, she jumps. “Ack!” she screams, her carefully manicured feathers momentarily ruffled. My presence has caught her -- and everyone else -- by surprise. Poise regained, she turns to her friends and says, "There is some sort of ... person behind me." She sneers with an expression of mock horror. “At least it usually stays out of the way,” she adds. Back on the path to her next class, the tail of her skirt swooshes by my mortified face. Just a few minutes earlier, I was basking in the solace my therapist had given me by simply believing me to have a pulse and, what's more, a personality! But being labeled “it” -- something I’d be loath to apply to a family pet -- is the last thing my still-struggling self-esteem needs. I’m 19 now and that moment still ranks as one of the top 10 worst in my life. Any hopes I’d been fostering about unearthing some of the personality that I’d buried in elementary school were set back at least a year. And frankly, the excavation is only now in full swing. ____________________ Visit Portrait Health Centers for more information on ADHD and ADHD testing. www.portraithealthcenters.com Click below to schedule an ADHD Test at Portrait Health Centers.
Panic has ensued over the announcement of a supply issue with many of the ADHD medications that contain a form of amphetamine drug. The FDA has posted drug shortage alerts due to the quotas imposed on manufacturers by the US Drug Enforcement Administration on the active ingredient, namely the amphetamine mixed salt. Limits are being imposed on manufacturing and are expected to continue for the next 6 to 8 weeks. Among the drugs affected are the commonly prescribed Adderall® and Metadate®. If you should experience difficulty having a prescription filled, · Ask your pharmacist if the medication is available from another location, especially if you use a large chain pharmacy. · Contact the manufacturer to help locate a pharmacy that has your medication in stock. · Contact the doctor who prescribed the medication to see if he/she has any samples you can use. · Ask your doctor about the availability of other medications used to treat ADHD. · Always have the effectiveness of a new medication tested using quantitative testing, which is available at the Portrait Health Centers.Portrait Health Centers www.portraithealthcenters.com will work with your doctor to find the best solution during this time of low supply of your ADHD Medication. For more information about this testing service and other services provided by Portrait Health Centers, call us at 847-868-3835 and ask to speak with our Nurse Navigator. You may also schedule an appointment on-line by clicking here:
 New Year’s Resolutions are all about making a commitment to improving our lives and ourselves. Losing weight and exercising more remain the top two resolutions made by US adults, and those are fine self-improvement goals. However, if you look at the trends for Americans who are increasingly overweight and in danger of becoming diabetics, it takes more than just a lofty promise to ourselves on New Year’s Eve to accomplish a goal. It takes a plan. Not Just a Promise… A Plan! For the more than 5 million Americans with ADHD, a list of resolutions may include plans to become more organized, procrastinate less, channel your excess energy, and reconnect with friends and loved ones. A top 10 list of New Year’s Resolutions may include: 1. Control Impulsive Spending With the holidays in your rear view mirror, and the memory of your overspending clear on your mind as you open your credit card bills, you need to develop a plan for controlled spending. What? You want me to make a budget? Well, if that word is taboo, what about developing a Controlled Spending Plan, one that actually allows you to have some allowance for impulsive shopping? Better? Most experts agree that establishing a plan for how to spend the money you earn is more successful than building a list of who needs to be paid and when. No, it’s not the same thing. A Controlled Spending Plan actually takes into account the fact that you will be putting to use every dollar that you earn, and includes a plan to SAVE money. At a high level, you determine what you need for your bills, obligations, and sustenance (like groceries). Then, you determine how to build a savings account and make SAVINGS a priority to be “paid” before that allowance you plan to give yourself for spending. Finally, entertainment, and the items that you consider rewards like new clothes, new shoes, and weekend escapes are part of the plan. But it’s a controlled plan with established limits and discipline. Try this for two months, and do not be discouraged if you overspend or make a decision or two that puts you over the limit. The more you use this plan, the better you will be at controlling your impulses to overspend. To learn more about ADHD treatments, therapies, and tips, visit www.portraithealthcenters.com. To schedule an appointment at Portrait Health Centers, call (847) 868-3435 or simply click below:
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