[Note: I am writing this review because I see a lot of negative reviews listed, and I want to share my opinion/story of this practice. Skip to the end if you want my summary of what to expect.]
I went in to see Dr. McClelland in 2017 for depression after having "waves" of it on and off my whole life (especially as an adult), and it finally got bad enough, for long enough, that I decided it was probably time to try antidepressants. The stigma of drug treatments and my own worry about taking "mood altering drugs" had kept me away until now, but I finally decided to see if my life could be improved.
Dr. McClelland was very kind, listened to my story, and asked followup questions. After I had rambled for 30 minutes about my life, jumping all over the place, he said something to the effect of, "I don't think depression is your problem, I think you have untreated ADHD which can often manifest as depression." Which makes sense... if your brain struggles with some things more than other people, but you don't know about it, it's very easy to spiral into depression and a struggle to feel "worthy", when everyone around you seems to effortlessly do tasks that are incredibly difficult for you.
I was scheduled for a "QB Test", as well as given an ADHD survey for me and my loved ones to fill out separately and compare answers. Going through that survey was eye-opening, it was like someone had recorded all the things in my life where I stumbled into a single form.
The QB Test was torture in exactly the right way... it's a monotonous task that I started out very strong in, but was eventually struggling to even stay awake while taking it in the middle of the day. It provided concrete metrics about how far from the median I performed on several ADHD-related measurements.
After a couple more visits, I was officially diagnosed with ADHD and we began trying to find the right medication. Dr. McClelland did an excellent job explaining the different medications and how they related to one another, as well as statistics on how effective each was at treatment across the ADHD population. When trying out ADHD medications and ramping up the dosage, I was encountering the side effects of the medication before I got to the correct dosage. Once again Dr. McClellan's expertise in this area was terrific, because it turns out that "hypersensitivity" is often a comorbid condition with ADHD. (Which explains why I carried earplugs around on my keychain for noisy bars.) Dr. McClelland was very knowledgeable about this symptom and the possible drug treatments, which allowed me to find a medication that "turned down" the hypersensitivity (it even helped me go outside without sunglasses in slightly less pain) enough that I could find the correct dosage of ADHD medication.
[Summary Time]
Dr. McClelland was the *perfect* doctor for me at this point and time, he caught the ADHD symptoms and helped me to consider a disorder that I otherwise would never have looked at (because there is a stigma about ADHD in general, and I was never physically "hyperactive", and seemed to do well enough in school "when I applied myself").
However, part of the reason caught my ADHD was that he himself has ADHD, and he focuses on it as a practice (which I greatly appreciate, because so many Doctors are hesitant to investigate the possibility of ADHD because of fears about the stimulant medications). Since he himself has ADHD, it does mean that he's very understanding about the struggles ADHD patients face, but it also means that he himself faces some of those struggles. One of the biggest ones that will affect you as a patient is his time management... he is frequently running late or losing track of time, and his staff does their best to help wrangle him. You should *not* take this as a sign he doesn't care about his patients, but I can understand how people visiting him for the first time might feel "blown off" while waiting for the Doctor to arrive at the office.
The other complaint I see in these reviews is that he likes to tackle the ADHD first, before other problems like Depression or Anxiety (an approach that worked well for me). There are a couple reasons he provided for this, one is that often if you can find the right ADHD treatment, the Depression or Anxiety will be dramatically lessened, possibly to the point that it's no longer something you need outside help with. The other big reason is that it's far easier to try out ADHD meds and find the correct dosage... you can start one medication, ramp it up over several days, and if the medication doesn't agree with you, you can immediately stop it, as opposed to Depression medications which often take weeks to "ramp up" and "wean off" when you want to switch medications.
In short, I definitely recommend Dr. McClelland for ADHD related treatment, and always felt like he gave me agency in my treatment plan. That said, his focus is ADHD, and I cannot speak to how effective his non-ADHD treatment plans are. read more