The following article by Laura Novak in the New York Times is a cautionary tale for those in the psychiatric field who may too quickly jump to diagnostic conclusions or who may dispense with a thorough and careful assessment in favor of dispensing medication:
Not Autistic or Hyperactive. Just Seeing Double at Times
As an infant, Raea Gragg was withdrawn and could not make eye contact. By preschool she needed to smell and squeeze every object she saw.
“She touched faces and would bring everything to mouth,� said her mother, Kara Gragg, of Lafayette, Calif. “She would go up to people, sniff them and touch their cheeks.�
Specialists conducted a battery of tests. The possible diagnoses mounted: autism spectrum disorder, neurofibromatosis, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety disorder.
A behavioral pediatrician prescribed three drugs for attention deficit and depression. The only constant was that Raea, now 9, did anything she could to avoid reading and writing.
Though she had already had two eye exams, finding her vision was 20/20, this year a school reading specialist suggested another. And this time the ophthalmologist did what no one else had: he put his finger on Raea’s nose and moved it in and out. Her eyes jumped all over the place.
Within minutes he had the diagnosis: convergence insufficiency, in which the patient sees double because the eyes cannot work together at close range.
Experts estimate that 5 percent of school-age children have convergence insufficiency. They can suffer headaches, dizziness and nausea, which can lead to irritability, low self-esteem and inability to concentrate.
Doctors and teachers often attribute the behavior to attention disorders or seek other medical explanations. Mrs. Gragg said her pediatrician had never heard of convergence insufficiency.
Dr. David Granet, a professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego, said: “Everyone is familiar with A.D.H.D. and A.D.D., but not with eye problems, especially not with convergence insufficiency. But we don’t want to send kids for remedial reading and education efforts if they have an eye problem. This should be part of the protocol for eye doctors.�
In 2005, Dr. Granet studied 266 patients with convergence insufficiency. Nearly 10 percent also had diagnoses of attention deficit or hyperactivity — three times that of the general population. The reverse also proved true: examining the hospital records of 1,700 children with A.D.H.D., Dr. Granet and colleagues found that 16 percent also had convergence insufficiency, three times the normal rate.
“When five of the symptoms of A.D.H.D. overlap with C.I.,� he said, “how can you not step back and say, Wait a minute?� [full text]
Kmareka.com 
Excellent Article!
It’s amazing how easy doctors jump to prescribe. I know they go through the normal check off list and then they pull the pen & pad out for Big Pharma.
Our government should be better alerting the medical community about this possible misdiagnosis and to rule out convergence insufficiency, especially seeing there was a 16% out of 1,700 have it and that is the true diagnosis. Wait a minute is right. That’s why parents need to self educate. I know and educate my own Pediatrician’s office, often sharing information such as this and mercury in flu, tetenus shots etc. I plan on mailiing this to her and my kids school to put on the parents board.
Most grateful to you David for bringing this to our attention!
One more point,
Frankly, I have read enough and know that 85-90% of Big Pharma money is spent on doctors and their symposiums…..that said, conflicts of interest run amuck in the medical profession. As is the case with Autism, the need for many in the medical profession is to poo-poo the trace mercury in shots (ex: a flu shot disburses 25 micrograms of mercury ~ enough for a 550 lb adult). Why wouldn’t we remove a known neurotoxin?
So, the bigger picture, I can see the motivation for not getting the “Convergence Insufficiency Diagnosis” out to the public….shameful.