Making Sense of ADHD And Overcoming The Challenges Of Coexisting Conditions

Why are so many children and adolescents who have ADHD falling through the cracks? Parents feel guilty and powerless. Their children struggle with diminished self-esteem. According to Dr. James Lewis, the answer is that it's never just ADHD!

Dr. Lewis has found, through his over 30 years of ADHD experience, that every child who has ADHD also has at least one coexisting condition that also needs to be managed. Some of the conditions that frequently coexist with ADHD include:

• Anxiety -
• Anger
• Mood Swings
• Insomnia
• Sleep Difficulties
• Emotional Impulsivity
• Learning disabilities

Dr. Lewis gives families a comprehensive strategy that takes into account the unique set of conditions that have been holding a child back. Each individual plan is designed to help the child reach both academic and social success.

When the ADHD and the coexisting conditions are managed, the child can fully use their innate strengths to meet their goals and gain the success they've been desperately seeking.

With this comprehensive approach parents find they are not alone on this journey as they put into place the plan that helps their child with ADHD and beyond, while children grow into the adults they were meant to be.

Dr. James Lewis, a Professor of Pediatrics at the Joan C Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University in Huntington, WV, is board certified in both Pediatrics and the sub-specialty of Neurodevelopment Disabilities. He received his pre-clinical training at Houghton College and the State University of New York School of Medicine at Buffalo. After two years of residency in Family Medicine at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, Dr. Lewis completed a three-year pediatric residency at the same institution. During his final year, he served as Co-Chief Resident with educational and clinical responsibilities that included supervising the ER, hospital wards and PICU. His background in family medicine stimulated his interest in children with special health care needs both physical and emotional, which led him to complete a one-year fellowship in Ambulatory and Community Pediatrics at the Children s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

After two years back in Baltimore, he and his family moved to Huntington, West Virginia, in 1983 to join the Department of Pediatrics at the Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University. He practiced both general and behavioral pediatrics and cared for hospitalized newborns, children and adolescents. In 2002 he developed the School Solutions Center at the University, devoting his practice exclusively to children with school and behavioral problems. He continues to see new patients who have been referred for evaluation and follow-up care on a daily basis, teach medical students and train pediatric residents. Throughout the process, he successfully employs a parent-centered multidisciplinary team following the medical home model.

Dr. Lewis lectures regularly on ADHD and coexisting conditions to parents and professionals. He has presented his research interests in ADHD and its association with autism, anxiety, parental stress, learning disabilities and adverse childhood experiences at national and state meetings of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the Pediatric Academic Society, the Learning Disability Association of America, the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and CHADD. He has published more than 25 scholarly journal articles, book chapters, and scientific abstracts.

He is currently the Chairman of the West Virginia AAP Committee for Children with Special Health Care Needs and Foster Care. He was also awarded West Virginia s first five-year, Healthy Tomorrows grant from 2007 to 2012 to coordinate medical care, with a focus on ADHD, for homeless children. Dr. Lewis also received the inaugural Abraham Finkelstein Resident Teaching Award and two Special Recognition Awards from the AAP.

Dr. Lewis and his wife Libby, have six grown children including twins, all with careers in medicine or teaching. Two of the boys have ADHD with associated educational and behavioral issues. They are particularly proud of their three grandchildren and are happy to provide pictures on request.