Title sums it up. A psychiatrist gave me an actual diagnosis of OCD, and a "provisional" diagnosis for ADHD. He didn't want to have any meetings/sessions regarding it, and it wasn't why I was talking to him in the first place. I went for repeating and intrusive thoughts that he gave the OCD diagnosis for. Never on meds for either one, never thought I had anything before (30 years old), just wanted to learn how to deal with the thoughts better than just ignoring them. The ADHD thing seemed like an afterthought because I asked for tips for powering through some of the more boring stuff I have to do at work. I have to read and interpret FAA literature, and then write policies based on FAA regs that can sometimes take days, weeks, or months to accomplish. Not very exciting. Not sure if it is pertinent, but I already had a 1st class that is now expired by a year or so, already have my PPL, ran out of money before I got my instrument rating finished. Now that I have some money saved I'm going back for a 1st class to eventually fly for hire. While I'm reporting the OCD diagnosis and going to jump through whatever hoops I have to in order to hopefully get a 1st class again, I'd really like to know about reporting the provisional ADHD diagnosis. Thanks for any help offered.
Doctors want to be paid. To be paid in the traditional insurance system they need to bill. To bill they need to diagnose. People like you should probably start with non-medical counselors before seeing a psychologist or psychiatrist. A good psychiatrist should start with several "rule outs" which may be similar to the "provisional" you describe. Only after several sessions should they really fine tune the diagnosis. Effectively "no" you do not have to report a provisional diagnosis. No adult should ever be diagnosed with ADHD without psychological testing either. It is way too important to get that right before starting an adult on lifetime narcotics.
That's the problem. It isn't a formal medical thing. Hence my discussion of potential "rule out" conditions prior to reaching a formal diagnosis.
I have no medical expertise, but from a scientific point of view, maybe it could be considered a hypothesis, which would need further testing to either confirm it or rule it out.
if you want to split hairs in your favor, if it is not in your medical records, then don't report it.
