Psychiatric Times Vol 21 No 10

With the increase in child and adolescent patients comes an increase in challenging cases. Dr. Schowalter introduces this Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Special Report and provides perspective on articles discussing approaches to initiating care with a teen-ager, collaborating with pediatricians and other clinical topics.

Beginning a therapeutic relationship with an adolescent patient requires an understanding of the family dynamics and the patient's experience of their unique stage of life. In this rapidly evolving population, a thoughtful approach is essential to prevent many of the pitfalls in treating adolescents.

What are the current policy barriers to effective addiction treatment, and how can they be overcome? Attendees at the American Society of Addiction Medicine's Annual Meeting heard about new and innovative ways of helping patients suffering from substance abuse.

Evidence-based treatment has not always been a common model in the field of psychiatry. Its popularity has grown over the last five years, though, as the body of scientific evidence into mental health has grown as well.

I sit with my patient but can't tune into another painful story.

There appears to be a subgroup of children and adolescents who, despite repeated brief hospitalizations, do not improve, but along the way, these patients accumulate medications. During long-term residential treatment, however, these patients do improve and their medications are reduced.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy can be tailored for use with children who have experienced sexual abuse in order to relieve symptoms of PTSD.

There has been much thought and discussion about the relationship between pediatrics and psychiatry, but research on the integration of the two leaves much to the imagination.

Evidence is growing that trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is an effective treatment for sexually abused children, including those who have experienced multiple other traumatic events. This article reviews the research that has examined treatments for sexually abused children and suggests future research priorities in this regard.