mercredi 29 janvier 2014

Pediatric Psychiatry In NYC Is An Essential Service

By Nelda Powers


Many children have mental health issues. They are in need of the services of a practitioner of pediatric psychiatry in NYC. Children are treated by this professional from an early age and through their teen years. Many of the illnesses that affect grown-ups can also make children disturbed.

Nearly five million children are affected by a mental illness that impacts the normal course of their lives. Twenty percent are stricken on a yearly basis. It is definitely more of a problem than most people realize.

Mental illness often has physical components such as brain chemistry and genetics. Children are hard to diagnose because of the many changes that occur as part of the natural growth process. A teen, for example, may appear to have a mental disorder when he is just acting like a teen.

The child might be functional while in the home where he feels safe. Then at school he may have trouble getting along. The opposite can also be true. School counselors are able to spot a troubled child, but only if that child comes in contact with them.

The education of any psychiatrist takes more than eleven years. Additional time is added when he pursues a specialty. Unlike the psychologist, he can prescribe medication for those patients who need it to maintain stability.

Children with a mental disorder need the best possible combination of medication and talk therapy, as counseling is sometimes called. It is not difficult to diagnose one disorder and that is the disruptive behavior condition. This child is a troublemaker, not quiet and disturbs the normal routine at school.

Anxiety disorders render a child nervous and in need of tranquilizers. He is also fearful of things that do not scare the average kid. Developmentally disordered individuals find the world a difficult place to comprehend.

Teen girls and some boys develop anorexia nervosa, a serious eating disorder. Bulimia is seen in combination with this. A schizophrenic child has disordered and sometimes psychotic thoughts. Mood disorder, for example clinical depression or bipolar disorder, do require medication.

The child psychiatrist will see patients in his office and provide outpatient care. If he works in another setting it is likely to be a hospital or residential care center. In many of these positions he works with other mental health professionals.

Psychiatrists use a reference manual called the DSM to assist them in determining the illness a child has. There is often an overlap in symptoms. For each disorder a specific number of symptoms must be present although not all must be exhibited by one child. It is difficult for younger children to verbalize their feelings. It is integral to successful treatment that an accurate evaluation be done.

Effective treatment may be a combination of medication and psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is also known as talk therapy. It may help a child to understand her own condition and learn how to cope with it.

The practitioner of pediatric psychiatry in NYC uses the lowest possible dose of medicine that will produce the desired improvement. In case of a bipolar illness he may have to try several before the optimal one is found. Attention deficit disorder is diagnosed and medicated in many cases that do not meet the DSM criteria for that medical disorder.




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